Industry news

Stefanini has been recognized as an ‘Exceptional Performer’ in Workplace Services and General Satisfaction in the prestigious 2024 German IT Sourcing Study by Whitelane Research. This acknowledgment highlights our continued success in delivering world-class workplace services that drive efficiency, innovation, and security for businesses across Germany.

Key points from the study include:

• 41% of German businesses are increasing their reliance on external IT providers to meet evolving workplace needs.
• Stefanini’s services are designed to optimize costs, scale effectively, and enhance operational resilience.
• We proudly maintain a Net Promoter Score (NPS) of 73.8 in 2024, continuing a strong upward trend in client satisfaction over the past four years.

Read the full article here

15^th January 2025; Ireland and UK based Forward Emphasis, celebrating 25 years in business, today announces its new brand and vision following its success in specialist insurance services, with a 23% growth surge in 2024, which has led to the opening of a second site and laid the groundwork for a greenfield campus in 2025 to support over 400 new jobs.

This growth underscores Forward Emphasis’s pivotal role in providing tailored, high-compliance services to insurers and financial institutions, reinforcing its dedication to fostering investment and job creation in rural communities.

Last week Forward emphasis was selected to join the Central Bank of Ireland’s inaugural Innovation Sandbox, one of 7 companies out of 40 applicants. Partnering with Pasabi they will develop and test a Motor Insurance Application Fraud Analytics solution, leveraging AI-driven behavioural analytics, machine learning, and pattern recognition to detect fraud in the pre-sales process.

The company is also accelerating its investment in RegTech, blending human expertise with emerging technologies and developing AI-driven solutions and automation tools to enhance compliance, streamline operations, and drive engagement, delivering solutions specifically designed to meet the evolving needs of the insurance sector.

CEO Paula Kennedy Garcia comments: “As we enter 2025, we are excited to launch our new brand and vision to fully convey the transformative potential of AI and emerging technologies in the regulatory space. Innovation is at the heart of our expansion plans, not only driving new capabilities but also generating economic growth and creating jobs. This new chapter reflects our unwavering commitment to shaping the future of compliance, technology, and customer service.”

Visit www.forwardemphasis.ie to see the new brand and vision.

1. Contrary to received wisdom, large language models can not only replace routine and repetitive work tasks, but they can also handle creative tasks as well as small groups of humans can.

2. The exception to this is creative writing, where humans continue to outperform AI. But with the sophistication of AI increasing all the time, even creative writing could be under threat.

The conventional wisdom that generative AI will replace only routine and repetitive work tasks, allowing human beings to concentrate on being innovative and creative, has, it seems, lulled us into a false sense of security. A new study from Cambridge Judge Business School finds that large language models (LLMs), such as generative pre-trained transformers (GPTs), can handle creative tasks just as effectively as small groups of humans can.

Read the full article on Management Today here.

As gen AI becomes increasingly integrated into our lives and businesses, it should come as no surprise that the US and China have emerged as frontrunners in the field.

More than half (57%) of the top-performing large language models (LLMs) have been developed by, or in partnership with, US-based companies or academic institutions. US-based gen AI start-ups have also received unparalleled private investment – a total of $65bn since 2019.

This is according to research from Boston Consulting Group (BCG), which highlights how gen AI is transforming industries and becoming a more pivotal factor in geopolitics, requiring governments and businesses to adapt to stay agile in the face of evolving dynamics.

Read the full article on Management Today here.

Following six months of piloting with seven selected customers, SAP has announced global general availability of its Green Ledger solution – designed to tightly integrate carbon accounting with customers’ financial accounting processes.

Designed with support from SAP partners (including EY, Deloitte, Accenture, and TCS, Green Ledger works by allocating carbon emissions to specific economic activities and transactions that are captured by SAP’s other solutions. This provides an ERP-centric approach that enables it to track and account for carbon emissions in relation to their financial impact, with data available to all business decision-makers – helping carbon accounting become more traceable, accountable, and auditable.

Read the full article on TechMarketView here.

A new report from the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) has revealed that while public trust in data practices is improving, concerns about data security and the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) remain widespread.

The findings from a survey that captured the perspectives of over 5,000 people, show that the public increasingly sees data as beneficial to society, particularly in creating products and services that improve lives. However, anxieties persist, with fears of unauthorised data sales, surveillance, and a lack of control over personal information being key worries. Older individuals were found to be especially concerned, reflecting themes frequently highlighted in news coverage.

Read the full article on TechMarketView here.

Meta, Facebook’s parent company, is planning to lay a $10 billion (£7.85bn) subsea communications cable that will straddle the world.

Meta will be the sole owner and operator of the 25,000 mile/40,000 kilometre cable: a first for the company. Meta has invested in around 16 other major subsea communications cable projects over the past decade, but hasn’t owned any of them outright.

The cable will route down the US east coast, cross the Atlantic to South Africa and curl around the horn of Africa before crossing the Indian Ocean. It will connect at Mumbai and navigate around India’s coastline, with a spur off to Chennai, before routing back to the US west coast, via Darwin in the north of Australia.

Read the full article on Computing here.

The cyberattack, believed to have been perpetrated by Russian hackers, has exposed sensitive information of both military personnel, civilian staff and defence contractors.

As reported by The i, the stolen data includes email addresses and login credentials for the Defence Gateway portal, a critical online platform used by British military personnel.

While the system itself doesn't store classified information, it is essential for internal communication, HR services and access to health records.

The majority of the affected employees are based in the UK, but a number are stationed overseas in countries like Iraq, Qatar and Cyprus, as well as mainland Europe.

Read the full article on Computing here.

Amazon has launched a range of new AI foundation models, dubbed ‘Nova’, as it seeks to keep pace with Microsoft, Google and Meta. With the ability to process text, image, and video as prompts, customers can use Amazon Nova-powered GenAI applications to understand videos, charts, and documents, or generate videos and other multimedia content.

Amazon has of course already invested billions in its partnership with Anthropic and already developed its own LLM called Titan. However, it seems the hyperscaler has no plans to solely rely on its partnership with Anthropic, and much like Google is seeking to advance its own IP creation, offering an alternative for customers as they seek to balance cost and performance.

Read the full article on TechMarketView here.

It’s almost unfathomable, considering the seemingly infinite possibilities afforded to businesses through adopting emerging technologies, that the process of digital transformation could have stalled altogether in some UK firms in recent years.

But that is the suggestion of a recent report, which also found that if all British-based firms had increased their digital technology usage in 2021, the economy could have seen a boost in turnover in 2023 – to the tune of £111bn.

Read the full article on Management Today.