NEWS & VIEWS
Last week the FSL Research Team went off in search of a deeper knowledge of all things related to Artificial Intelligence and Big Data. We joined thousands of others at the 2019 Global Expo held at London Olympia. We walked around the 300+ exhibitors and attended several of the speaker sessions and panels.
It was an enlightening experience that focused on four key areas: AI & Big Data; Blockchain; Cyber Security & Cloud Solutions; and Internet of Things Technologies. The exhibitors ranged from cloud computing experts to crypto-currency exchanges, and from Blockchain solution providers to AI technology suppliers.
One of the panel discussions we attended discussed the rise of Crypto Capitalism. It examined the challenges faced by venture capitalists as they develop their holdings in crypto investments either through utility or equity tokens. They highlighted the focus of regulators and that, though it is a little distant at the moment, it is constantly in their sights. The conversation also considered the potential tax relief given on tokens for start-ups and the benefit this brought to these organisations even though there is a risk to investors with around 90% of start-ups failing.
Another session included panellists from major retailers and travel firms discussing big data and the creation of intelligent data models. The panel, made up of Data Scientists, talked about how they have made advancements in their use of big data, unlocked unstructured data and transform into insights. They felt that many organisations are not accessing the full value of big data and that quality, clean data was not always available. The main consideration when developing an intelligent data model is that you start with the business problem and ensure you have clean and available data. You shouldn’t think you must have machine learning and models and then throw all the data at it in the hope that you get a trend/link. Business teams must be involved in the development of the model throughout. Those that know the business best can help to develop the best data models, however this should not be done to the extreme so that biases appear.
Overall, we came away with a greater understanding of the digital market, insights to ensure FSL remains abreast of market trends and some ideas for how we might apply our learnings to our own business.