Category: General

Frictionless future

Frictionless Future: How Open Banking is Transforming Retail Payments and What to Focus on in 2024

February 8, 2024

Retail payments and the overall retail banking space may witness a major transformation in 2024 from a global perspective. Open banking facilitates banks and financial institutions to share data seamlessly with third-party financial entities via open banking APIs. These third parties may include several lending firms, expense-tracking entities, and more, which use this information for creating a broader range of products and services. The ultimate beneficiary may the customer, since this open exchange of data will enable contemporary financial services entities ensure more client-centric and personalized solutions. Open banking is growing rapidly and steadily into a mainstream framework for banking and financial institutions. There have been several reports of how open banking payments have doubled in 2023 across the UK as compared to earlier periods and also how 1 out of 9 consumers are already making use of open banking currently. Account-to-account payments have also garnered aa major chunk of online payments while future projections indicate future growth. By 2024, open banking may become a key component of retail payments and the whole retail banking spectrum. Here’s getting a closer glimpse into the same. A Little More About Open Banking Open banking is a system where banks open their APIs or application programming interfaces, enabling third parties to conveniently get access to financial data required for the development of new programs and services  while enabling more transparency choices for account-holders. Some instances include BBVA launching Open Platform, its own BaaS platform in the US in 2018. This helps third parties offer financial solutions to customers without requiring a full banking service suite. HSBC also launched Connected Money as an app in 2018. Customers can easily view their bank accounts, mortgages/loans, and credit cards at a single place. Barclays also enabled account aggregation within its app for mobile banking. Customers here can view their accounts with other banks on the Barclays mobile banking app. What are the Advantages of Open Banking? What are the benefits of open banking for the retail banking system as a whole? Here’s looking at the same. 2024 Predictions for Open Banking Here are some of the key trends that can be anticipated in the open banking sphere in 2024 and beyond. Hence, as can be seen, open banking will enable numerous advantages and transformations worth looking forward to in 2024 and beyond, not just in the sphere of retail payments, but also retail banking as a whole. It will create a more connected ecosystem where consumer experiences are also swift and more personalized. The whole process will bring about lower costs and higher efficiency for financial services players and banks alike. FAQs Are there security concerns associated with open banking in retail payments? There are some security concerns that are linked to open banking for retail payments, keeping data privacy requirements at the forefront. These are majorly maintaining privacy with encryption and other measures and Cybersecurity measures in general. This is because customer data will be shared in this case with third party providers. Does open banking just cover payments? Open banking does not only cover retail payments and makes them simpler and more convenient. It also has various use cases pertaining to credit checks, personal finance, verifying identity, personalized services for consumers and more. How does open banking foster innovation in the retail payments sector? Open banking enables greater innovation in retail payments through enabling third party providers to readily access bank information/data. It can thus spur innovation which leads to more efficient and personalized consumer experiences. How does open banking impact the user experience in retail payments? Open banking has a major impact on user experiences in the retail payments space. It will make payments easier and smoother without multiple security steps and processes. It will also ensure secure and quicker payment choices for users. How does open banking contribute to making retail payments more frictionless? Open banking contributes greatly towards making retail payments frictionless and free from any hassles. It enables direct bank payments and these can be accepted from customers by merchants on their channels in a swift and secure manner. There are several steps and processes that customers or merchants do not have to go through in this case.

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Emotional Intelligence

Emotional Intelligence at Work: The Key to Anger Management

December 5, 2023

Anger management is highly essential at the workplace, particularly when it comes to boosting emotional intelligence and cultivating an atmosphere of positive leadership. Anger is a universally-recognized emotion that everyone is familiar with. It can sometimes be a blessing, but more often than not, a bane. Getting out of control and regretting actions/words spurred by anger is something that is avoidable, especially in the workplace. Workplace anger can be tackled by the right strategies, along with a deep-rooted effort to enhance EI (emotional intelligence). This refers to the ability to regulate and understand emotions, while also understanding and sensing others’ emotions accordingly. Those with higher emotional intelligence are usually better managers and leaders, while performing better at work, especially in terms of building superior interpersonal relationships. Those without empathy often have problems in adjusting to diverse and unique work environments. Here is a closer look at anger management strategies and other information that can help in this regard. What Emotional Intelligence Entails Noted psychologist Daniel Goleman has broken down EI into five core elements in his book Emotional Intelligence. In fact, he feels that EI matters even more than the IQ of an individual. Here are these components: Constructive Ways to Manage Anger Anger management can be implemented constructively as a way of life. EI is vital for helping people choose anger that is constructive in place of the corresponding destructive nature of anger. Healthy anger means pausing and reflecting on feelings, sensations, and thoughts instead of reacting to anything. Anger is a distraction and reaction to negative emotions and suffering in most cases. Anger stems from any perceived threat to physical and emotional wellbeing and also core needs and desires. Identifying the same will help understand arousal and triggers better. Empathy can be an excellent buffer against anger that is destructive, inclusive of verbal and physical aggression towards other individuals. It helps recognize the inherent humanity in not just oneself, but also others. The Connection between Anger and Emotional Intelligence Workplace anger and other occurrences can be tackled by boosting emotional intelligence. Those with higher EI are usually seen to demonstrate lower aggression. Those with lower EI are more prone towards anger in workplace environments. There are several psychological advantages of higher emotional intelligence that are evident, including better anger control in place of negative reflection or suppression outwards. Training in building emotional intelligence can also affect the management of anger arousal. Every individual can learn skills for boosting emotional intelligence and subsequently grow resilience to tackle several negative effects such as anger. Cognitive behavioral techniques can also be learnt for regulating emotions better while identifying distortions in thought processes. Anger Management Strategies to Follow For dealing better with workplace anger, here are some anger management strategies that may help. The biggest thing to remember about anger is that it is not always an enemy that you have to vanquish. Rather, once the root cause is identified and you can reflect on your arousal triggers, it can be channelized into constructive and productive thoughts and actions. Embracing proper anger management will help foster better workplace environments and inculcate better leadership. FAQs Why is emotional intelligence crucial in the workplace, particularly in the context of anger management? Emotional intelligence is vital in the workplace, especially for anger management. EI helps people cultivate and develop empathy and identify triggers behind anger better. It helps control anger better and channelize it into constructive actions. How can employees develop and improve their emotional intelligence for better anger management at work? Employees can certainly develop and enhance their emotional intelligence for better anger management at the workplace. Some of the ways including following a mentally healthy lifestyle, taking time-outs or breaks whenever there is any emotional surge, reflecting and identifying the root causes of anger, meditation, mindfulness techniques, and deep breathing. What are some common signs that indicate a lack of emotional intelligence in the workplace, and how does this relate to anger issues? Some of the signs that indicate a lack of emotional intelligence in the workplace include perpetually blaming others, difficulty in asserting oneself, inability to cope with stressful situations, feeling easily misunderstood or stressed, holding grudges, and lacking empathy for others. It relates to anger issues, since all of these may be triggers for outbreaks of anger and avoidable verbal/physical aggression.

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AI and life sciences: Navigating risks and challenges

AI and Life Sciences: Navigating Risks and Challenges

September 21, 2023

With the increasing penetration of artificial intelligence (AI) in life sciences, there has been a barrage of questions regarding the risks and challenges involved in this integration. While AI has already started its transformative journey throughout multiple other industries, the life sciences sector has recently woken up to the potential of the same.  Some factors that are key moot points in this regard include the role played by AI in developing COVID-19 vaccines in quicker time (less than one year as opposed to a decade in most cases), AI-driven drug discovery where a novel drug candidate was found for liver cancer in only 30 days, and more. Even Google Cloud has unveiled new AI-backed tools that facilitate quicker drug discovery. Many other technology companies are coming up with tools for automating processes that were manual and time-consuming in nature earlier.  How it stacks up  Life sciences and healthcare AI have already reached a watershed point where there are challenges and disruptions to contend with, but the speed and scale of adoption continue unhindered. Here are some points worth noting in this regard:  Yet, ethics, data privacy, regulatory aspects, and other challenges must be tackled with care to ensure widespread benefits from integrating artificial intelligence (AI) in life sciences. Let us first look at the range of its applications in this space.  Applications of AI in life sciences and healthcare Here are a few points that should be noted in this context:  Now that the benefits of AI are clearly visible, let us take a closer look at the challenges mentioned above and the ways to navigate them for swifter progress in the domain.  Major challenges of AI in life sciences Here are the risks that still remain while deploying artificial intelligence (AI) in life sciences.  Signing off, it can be said that the AI-enabled transformation drive is now in the second phase, i.e. completing patterns and going beyond the initial brief of recognizing them. The life sciences sector will greatly benefit from this current AI stage, provided it can counter the challenges mentioned above.  FAQs AI has a vital role to play in the life sciences industry, enabling faster drug discovery and development along with boosting clinical trial design and data-gathering. It helps analyze vast data sets and generate better insights from the same.  2. What are the key challenges and risks associated with implementing AI in healthcare and life sciences? There are a few challenges and risks that companies have to face while implementing AI in the life sciences and healthcare industry. These include the lack of skilled talent, regulatory compliance hurdles, ensuring data privacy and patient confidentiality, and steering clear of biases in AI algorithms. 3. How can data privacy and security concerns be effectively addressed when using AI in life sciences? Data security and privacy concerns can be tackled effectively with a few proactive steps while using AI in the life sciences sector. These include dedicated patient confidentiality and privacy approaches along with an increased focus on secure data transmission and usage. Governance and data security protocols should be established as per regulatory standards for secure storage, processing, and collection of patient data.  4. What ethical considerations should be taken into account when deploying AI in medical decision-making? The biggest ethical consideration that should be kept in mind while AI is being used for medical decision-making, is the elimination of biases. While training AI models based on real-world data and inputs, there are unconscious biases that get embedded into the same. This may have negative consequences for patients if they are not tackled at the outset.

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Social Media Polls of INT- Interesting Revelations That You Should Not Miss

Social Media Polls of INT- Interesting Revelations That You Should Not Miss

September 18, 2023

Analytics are the transformational tech tools of today. This statement is almost undisputable in the current scenario, particularly when you take social media into account. Social media marketing, campaigns, branding, and doing business on these platforms as a whole, is vastly dependent upon analytics today. Generating actionable insights is invaluable for businesses in terms of product or service strategies, customer offerings, feedback, performance reviews and more.  On that note, keeping social media at the forefront, INT (Indus Net Technologies) conducted a unique social media poll. Here are some fascinating revelations that emerged from the exercise, covering multiple industry domains: A whopping 48% voted in favour of analytics benefiting disease diagnosis the most, followed by monitoring health trends. 11% favoured patient outcome predictions while 7% talked about treatment recommendations. Keeping an eye on the pulse merits a statement that analytics will ultimately become the tried and tested tool for monitoring health trends in a more personalized manner while generating continual insights that will ultimately help diagnose diseases more effectively. Faster diagnosis may help in quicker treatment and care strategies that will prevent issues from snowballing into bigger worries for patients. Insurance is no stranger to analytics, having already started leveraging the same for improved outcomes in multiple departments. As per the survey, the highest numbers (39%) were seen in favour of sales tracking, with regard to the domain that benefits the most from analytics-driven reporting and analytics. Claims tracking and risk management got 22% of the vote while market trend identification polled 17%. This indicates that analytics will enable quicker tracking of insurance sales while claims processing will eventually become faster and more customer-friendly due to easier tracking and risk management.  Most businesses are no strangers to billing errors. For a Billing and Premium module, analytics will benefit billing accuracy the most as voted by 41%. A high 27% also voted for its role in enabling enhanced customer insights, while 18% and 14% voted for better decision-making and cost-reductions respectively. As for credit card fraud detection models, analytics are poised to enable early fraud detection the most as per 53%. 19% alike voted for real-time alerts and customer data protection, while 9% voted for precise transaction monitoring. This goes to show a use case for analytics as a tool towards swiftly detecting frauds by identifying anomalies and fraudulent patterns. It will help companies stem fraud losses greatly in the near future. Respondents were asked about the potential benefit that they found most attractive for an insurance call volume prediction model. A high 45% voted in favor of enhanced customer service, while 36% voted for improved resource allocation. It indicates the potential of tech-driven models for helping insurers improve customer service standards while also streamlining allocation of resources to save time, energy and costs. 18% were in favor of proactive issue resolution while one voted for effective call routing. With regard to boosting accuracy levels of demand forecasting, 53% voted in favor of time series analysis while regression analysis was favored by 19% of respondents. 11% voted in favor of simulation models while 17% were in favor of data mining. These insights offer clues into the preferred paradigms for the space going forward. Customer feedback management is a key aspect for most businesses today, in an increasingly customer-is-king landscape. With regard to the customer feedback management aspect that may benefit the most from GenAI and other AI integration, 58% voted for real-time sentiment analysis. 21% alike voted for actionable insights detection and personalized customer responses. Going by these findings, it is apparent that feedback management will be drastically revamped in the coming days with companies utilizing sentiment analysis in real-time to shape decision-making and plug gaps. The INT social media polls were an exhilarating exercise, throwing up interesting insights, linked to the future potential of AI and analytics for various use cases. The results are fascinating to say the least and may indicate the direction that the wind is blowing (to take liberties with the phrase).

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Latest Technologies and Future Trends by Top Key Players Forecast to 2030

Latest Technologies and Future Trends by Top Key Players Forecast to 2030

September 15, 2023

Several emerging technologies are poised to bring about a massive industry transformation as per reports. What is the forecast for future trends and the top key players till 2030? Here’s finding out.  Major Findings Here are some interesting findings related to technological advancements and technological disruptions throughout industries. It also offers insights into the future trends regarding emerging technologies.  Some Other Crucial Insights Here are a few other innovation forecast moot points for the period till 2030:  As can be seen, widespread transformation is at the core of business operations and efficiencies in the period till 2030. What the world is currently witnessing is a transitional phase with several emerging technologies being adopted by leading players in the Asia-Pacific and even worldwide. What is evident is that 2030 will push the bar well higher in terms of disruptions and eventual progress.  FAQs Some of the technologies that are already shaping the business landscape include automation and artificial intelligence, along with machine learning and IoT (Internet of Things). Other examples include data analytics and cloud computing along with blockchain technology. Organizations are steadily embracing these technologies to boost efficiency and offer more personalization to customers while also streamlining their internal operations or business processes. By 2030, the physical and digital worlds will also merge with technologies like AR, VR and 3D being used for creating digital twins in sectors like healthcare, manufacturing, real estate and more. There will also be a shift towards data native from cloud-native along with generative AI usage for closing up gaps between insights and data.  2. Who are the key players in these emerging technologies, and what are their roles in driving innovation? There are several key players for these emerging technologies from multiple standpoints. Countries like Japan, India, South Korea, and China are at the cusp of greater breakthroughs in terms of technological integration into the public and corporate spheres for greater efficiency, mitigation of risks, and many other purposes. At the same time, leading tech giants have a big role to play in terms of innovation and experimentation in order to drive future progress. The biggest players in these segments are chief technology officers or CTOs of companies. They have a vital role in terms of encouraging more innovation and building future technology blueprints for organizations.  There are a few challenges linked to the adoption of new technologies. These include legacy systems and perspectives, lack of training or skill sets, costs of new technologies and tools, and the speed of technological advancements, along with privacy concerns. The latter can be addressed through encryption measures, audits, and compliance with better regulations. Steady investments in up-skilling, training, and future-ready digital infrastructure are also the way forward with regard to tackling these challenges.  Several emerging technologies are poised to have a disruptive effect on various global sectors. Retail will witness a complete revamping of business strategies and models, becoming more personalized and data-driven with technological disruption. Industries like healthcare, manufacturing, insurance and finance should also witness major disruptions in the near future. 

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Impact of Incorrect Demand Estimation- Quantitative Insights

Impact of Incorrect Demand Estimation- Quantitative Insights

September 4, 2023

Incorrect demand estimation is the proverbial blow that comes just when a business is least expecting it. No, the attempt is not to be dramatic here, but to illustrate how proper demand estimation is crucial for the long-term growth and sustainability of any business. Supply and demand volatility and external factors already make demand forecasting highly challenging. Fluctuations in demand from the last year are not enough while consumer behavioral shifts keep happening, making it harder to assume anything. So what can be a feasible solution? Companies can rely on quantitative insights and other forecasting tools to improve their demand estimation rates. Let us look closely at these aspects in this article. The Cost of Incorrect Demand Estimation The cost of incorrect demand estimation will naturally be immensely high for any business. While putting a number to it is difficult, picture a scenario where there are either stockouts or overstocking. This may lead to excess costs of carrying, rush orders, higher shipping costs, and operational expenditure. Automatically, they all combine to lower profit margins for businesses, thereby directly hitting at financial performance figures. A few examples of incorrect demand forecasts will help you understand the cost at stake.  Would you call these costly forecasting mistakes? You bet! And when it comes to running a company, the costs include the following: As can be seen, incorrect demand estimation can be disastrous for companies in diverse sectors. Let us now look at how it impacts customer satisfaction levels as well. The Impact of Incorrect Demand Estimation on Customer Satisfaction Incorrect demand estimation can have a negative impact on customer satisfaction levels. Here are some pointers that are worth noting in this context. In today’s era of hyper-personalisation in customer service, such scenarios can adversely impact any brand. Here is how the accuracy of demand forecasts can be improved. How to Improve the Accuracy of Demand Estimation Fixing incorrect demand estimation and scaling up the accuracy levels of forecasts is possible with the help of several techniques. These include the following:  Companies can consider suitable demand forecasting tools driven by artificial intelligence and machine learning. It will help them monitor progress with complete visibility into the process. Advanced data capture and analysis will unearth invaluable insights that lead to better forecasts and decision-making alike. These tools also enable forecasts that are more accurate, since they consider promotions, trends, seasonality, and variance in demand.  Analysis and insights into multiple demand scenarios based on major variables will help companies respond suitably to evolving trends. AI and big data analytics will swiftly process unstructured and structured data in massive chunks from various sources. This will include social media data, market trends, sales records, customer data, and more. AI-based algorithms will help companies identify complex trends and patterns, while predictive models can be generated after learning from historical data.  Real-time analysis of incoming data will help enhance awareness of new patterns and enable updated forecasts likewise. Businesses can segment demand and consumer groups for better marketing strategies and inventory management alike. Going by the recent trends, AI, ML, and analytics will play a big role in helping companies combat inaccurate demand estimation while positively impacting bottomlines eventually.  FAQs 1.The Impact of Incorrect Demand Estimation on Marketing Strategy  Incorrect demand estimation impacts marketing strategy in several ways. Overestimation may lead to more investments in inventory and production capacity in some categories. This may lead to marketing teams missing out on high-demand or trending products. Poor forecasting hinders the abilities of companies to accurately predict when any particular product will be most popular. This will lead to a loss of marketing opportunities.  2.How Incorrect Demand Estimation Can Affect Brand Reputation Brand reputation is adversely affected by incorrect demand estimation. Customers will feel dissatisfied about higher order cancellations, delivery delays, and about the brand not meeting their needs at the right time. They may spread this negative perception through word-of-mouth. At the same time, failure to anticipate customer buying habits and trends will lead to inventory undersupply or oversupply, leading to customers shifting to market competitors.  3.The Impact of Incorrect Demand Estimation on Corporate Social Responsibility Incorrect demand estimation can also have an impact on the corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives of the company. With incorrect forecasts leading to higher resource allocation on unnecessary inventory and subsequent losses throughout the entire operational and supply chain networks, companies will naturally have to slash corporate social responsibility budgets. At the same time, poor brand image and reputation will also impact these initiatives greatly.

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Retail News Wrap Int.

Retail News Wrap | Weekly Snippets | August

September 1, 2023

✅ Hyundai Home Shopping’s latest breakthrough promises customers real-time 3D images of outfits which will range up to 20 styles in a minute.  https://www.kedglobal.com/retail/newsView/ked202308290011 ✅ Kanine announces its collaboration with Myntra, where it introduced 2,500 distinct products to the Indian market, bringing the world’s trendiest pet fashion brands right to pet owner’s doorstep.  https://www.indianretailer.com/news/retail-india-news-kanine-hand-myntra-unveils-global-pet-fashion-brands-india ✅ SenSen’s futuristic technology is taking the fight against retail fuel theft to a whole new level by using AI to analyse data from cameras and sensors. https://kalkinemedia.com/news/world-news/sensens-new-ai-breakthrough-fights-retail-fuel-theft ✅ Shopify – The Canadian retail tech platform is revamping the online shopping game with AI technology. https://wwd.com/business-news/technology/shopify-ai-magic-sidekick-giants-1235763521/

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INT. Pulse

INT. Pulse | August 2023

September 1, 2023

Dear Colleague, a lot has happened since we successfully landed in your inbox last month, making August’s opening blurb fuller than it usually is.  Super-Quick Recap 🧠The folks at OpenAI have finally unleashed a steroid-laced version of their generative transformer, aka, ChatGPT Enterprise. Better security, improved privacy, and turbocharged power come standard with this version.  However, top media houses like The New York Times, CNN and ABC have blocked OpenAI’s crawler, meaning Altman and his band of techies cannot use these publications to train their AI anymore.  🎙️ As we were busy cheering Chandrayaan-3, brain-reading implants powered by artificial intelligence have enabled two people with paralysis to communicate with unheard-of accuracy and speed.  We can now imagine a future where fluid conversation can be restored to folks with paralysis, enabling them to freely say whatever they want and be understood reliably too. More on this as you read on… 🤖✈️ Experts from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science & Technology (KAIST) have developed a humanoid robot (named Pibot), capable of flying an aircraft without making any significant changes to the cockpit. Pibot’s capacity is so vast that it can store all of the Jeppesen aeronautical global navigation charts, a task beyond any human pilot’s imagination.  Chatter at the INT. Marketing Team – “Yayy! R2D2’s ancestor is finally here.” 👑 Mom’s Love + Rasam = Grandmaster.  Chess prodigy Praggnanandhaa’s mother, Nagalaxmi, takes along an induction stove and two utensils to make rasam and rice for her children whenever they travel. For the FIDE World Cup too, the first things she packed in her luggage were rice, a rice cooker, and masalas.  💡 Pro Culinary Tip: Now you know what should be tonight’s dinner.  STATS: 14x Jump In India’s Ai-Skilled Task Force Recruiters and head honchos reading this, time to put away those antacids. How Come? Per this ET report, basis a LinkedIn survey, India’s AI-skilled crew grew by 14x in June 2023 compared to January 2016, putting our country among the top five for AI talent increase, alongside Singapore, Finland, Ireland, and Canada. Okay… I Want To Know More So, LinkedIn’s first-ever ‘Future of Work: State of Work @ AI’ study — which notes the rise of artificial intelligence at work — unearthed that 7/10 of India’s Gen-Z platoon believes AI skills are mission critical for career progress.  The study also found that through the past year, 43% of our workforce has witnessed increased AI usage at work.  This realisation has pushed 60% of all crews and 71% of Gen Z pros in India to make a beeline for AI-related upskilling.  Looking ahead, 57% of executives aim to enhance AI use in their business workflows next year, meaning organisations are actively reskilling their existing staff with AI expertise to ensure relevance and agility.  Here’s Some Straight Talk 🎙️”We are also seeing a strong trend around the emphasis on soft skills such as creativity and communications in the age of AI, and this is particularly strong in India, with 91% of top executives recognising their increased importance, surpassing the global average of 72%,” Ashutosh Gupta, country manager at LinkedIn India, told ET.  Hiring Competition? 🍎 Umm, Canada.  Yes, you heard right. Last financial year, over 51% of the 32-odd thousand tech workers that migrated to Canada, were Indians. 🤷🏻‍♀️ Ai & Healthcare: 78 Words Per Minute If we analyse the human timeline, landmark events like our control over fire, the invention of the wheel and axle, or even agriculture fade in comparison to the moment we learnt to talk.  Today, we bring news that is as historic as that point in time. Seriously? Totally! 67-year-old Pat Bennett, who has motor neuron disease that prevents her from speaking, and 47-year-old Ann, who lost her voice after a brainstem stroke 18 years ago, have both found their words again, thanks to some really really cool tech. WTF?? How?  Let us explain. In two separate studies published this month, two expert teams deployed brain–computer interfaces (BCIs) to translate neural signals into text and AI-generated voices.  The BCIs can decode speech at 62 and 78 words per minute, respectively. FYI, natural conversation happens at around 160 words per minute, but the new technologies are both faster than any previous attempts. How Does It Work? First, Bennett was operated upon to insert arrays of small silicon electrodes into parts of her brain that are involved in speech, a few millimetres beneath the surface.  Then, algorithms were trained to recognise the unique signals in Bennett’s brain when she attempted to speak various phrases using a large vocabulary set of 125,000 words and a small vocabulary set of 50 words.  ‘The AI decodes words from phonemes — the subunits of speech that form spoken words. For the 50-word vocabulary, the BCI worked 3.4 times faster than an earlier BCI developed by the same team3 and achieved a 9.1% word error rate.  The error rate rose to 23.8% for the 125,000-word vocabulary’, says the Nature article.  What’s Next? Many improvements are needed before the BCIs can be made available for clinical use.  🙋🏻‍♀️“The ideal scenario is for the connection to be cordless,” Ann herself told researchers. WOW! More power to Ann, Pat, and the teams behind this magic.  Well, we can’t do that just yet but Dipak has a whole bunch of AI-powered solutions to solve all kinds of modern business problems. Get in touch with him to explore one.  BFSI: Let’s Meet @ The Global Fintech Fest, Mumbai This September, from the 5th through the 7th, we are in Mumbai to exhibit our fintech and insurance solutions at the Global Fintech Fest 2023, being held at the Jio World Centre.   Drop in at our consolidated booth (U20 & U21), connect with our experts in person and take away actionable insights on Tech, Data & AI, and Marketing, to help your business stay ahead of the curve.  Need more airtime? Setup a meeting with our team here. . . See you there. 👋  Stuff We Are Watching 📌We Need Just $6 billion: Facing increasing pressure from China, which has accelerated its conventional weapon procurement efforts in recent months, the US Air Force is developing an AI

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5 Causes of Miscommunication in Your Workforce

5 Causes of Miscommunication in Your Workforce and How to Avoid It

August 30, 2023

Miscommunication in the workforce is one of the biggest bugbears at contemporary workplaces. While the emphasis at modern workplaces is on better collaboration and clear communication, there is often a communication breakdown due to diverse reasons. Avoiding the same is a pre-requisite towards building a healthier and motivated workforce that communicates better. Here’s looking at some of the biggest reasons behind workplace miscommunication and how you can fix them. How to Avoid Miscommunication in the Workplace Avoiding miscommunication among the workforce necessitates better awareness of the reasons behind the same. Here are the top reasons that you should be aware of along with their fixes.  Even after identifying these causes and their solutions, miscommunication may still crop up at the workplace. You should take more time and keep gathering feedback to eliminate the same completely. The Importance of Clear and Concise Communication Concise and clear communication is the gateway towards better collaborations amongst employees. It also helps avoid miscommunication at various levels. Here are a few pointers that should be kept in mind:  As can be seen, concise and crisp communication is the need of the hour along with full transparency. Let us now take a closer look at the concept of active listening and its positive implications for contemporary workplaces. The Power of Active Listening Active listening is a great way to weed out miscommunication at the workplace. Here are some aspects that are worth noting in this regard. These are some tips that will help implement an active listening culture at work while eliminating miscommunication among team members. Clear and transparent communication is the best way to achieve company objectives without any delays, hold-ups, or communication breakdowns amongst employees. FAQs Cultural differences often lead to miscommunication within a highly diverse workforce. This arises from different perspectives and cultural backgrounds along with behavioral patterns, body language, mindsets, gestures, manners, and other norms.  Organisations can implement communication strategies to build better communication across departments. These include giving employees a platform to be heard and share ideas. Companies can encourage open communication while enabling higher understanding and empathy. They should also ensure that everyone is on the same page while encouraging more feedback and interactions. Other strategies include clear protocols for tasks and documents along with common objectives and easier collaboration tools for cross-departmental communication.  Technology alleviates communication breakdowns in the workplace by making it easier to share data and inputs, collaborate, ask questions, get feedback, and solve problems as a team anytime and anywhere. It has introduced new communication mediums that enable swifter and more convenient interactions. However, it has often led to communication breakdowns, since it has minimised face-to-face communication and interactions. At the same time, it is often a distraction which makes it difficult to practice active listening at the workplace.  A communication-friendly organisational culture is one where employees are encouraged to communicate freely and openly. It is one where there are collaborative platforms and spaces for teams along with periodic feedback-gathering sessions and discussions with the leadership. It is also one where managers actively listen to employee inputs and value them. 

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Why performance management is an integral part of an organisation?

Why performance management is an integral part of an organisation?

August 23, 2023

Performance management is a dedicated system that leverages sets of rewards and goals to encourage employees to dedicate themselves more towards work. Managing employee performance is a great way to optimize work procedures, while also achieving higher productivity and efficiency at the same time. It is not only vital for goal achievement, but also for strategic alignment of organizational goals and employee efficiencies. It also helps in terms of fostering better employee development and engagement in the long run. Here’s delving deeper into the concept and its implications for organizational success, employee engagement, and other crucial aspects. The Importance of Performance Management for Organizational Success Performance management can be a pivotal pillar as far as goal achievement or organizational success is concerned. Here are a few core points that will illustrate its importance in this context. How Performance Management Can Improve Employee Engagement and Productivity Performance management can go a long way towards enhancing employee productivity and engagement levels. Here are a few aspects worth noting in this regard.  Engagement plays a vital role in boosting individual performance. Outdated mechanisms like appraisals and performance reviews may not work for companies anymore. If done in the right way, performance management can foster superior engagement and help in accomplishing organizational goals faster.  It also leads to a better sync between company and employee objectives. There is a marked shift in the approach from more assessment-oriented to feedback-driven.  Advanced systems for managing performance will come into play sooner than later, with technological disruptions on the anvil too. This will help organizations greatly in terms of motivating employees better, engaging them successfully, and ensuring higher productivity. FAQs Some of the core components of a successful performance management system include developing, planning, rating, monitoring, and rewarding. They complement each other and lead to more effective performance management.  2: How does performance management enhance accountability and transparency within an organization? Performance management helps in boosting organizational transparency and accountability. Focusing on continuous tracking and accountability leads to a more transparent and healthier working environment. This leads to more transparency on performance feedback and also boosts employee autonomy and development. This naturally enables higher employee engagement and they can take more ownership of their work accordingly.  3: What are the potential benefits of incorporating technology into performance management processes? There are numerous advantages of integrating technology into performance management procedures. It lowers human bias along with ensuring more affordability and transparency accordingly. Compliance levels also go up while reporting mechanisms are also improved as a result. Technology-based performance systems enhance engagement, target reviews, tracking, assessment, and customized performance scales.  4: How can performance management help in identifying and addressing skill gaps within the workforce? Key performance indicators or KPIs can help evaluate career progress of employees along with overall retention and eligibility for promotions, rewards, and bonuses. They will also help companies identify contribution levels of employees while identifying skill gaps. Employee assessments are also great ways to discover skill gaps along with 360-degree reviews and observations. Performance benchmarks can also be set and monitored.

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