“We want to expand what Vodafone stands for in consumers; minds,” says Pamela Brown, chief marketing officer, Vodafone Smart Tech. “It’s a significant step because we’re traditionally a mobile phone company.”

Despite years spent dabbling in the Internet of Things (IoT) sector, she admits there is a lot of ground to make up in brand perception. “I’d love this to have higher awareness than it does today. Analysts talk about these massive numbers like there will be 41bn smart devices by 2027. This is significant growth, and I believe Vodafone has a role to play in it.”

Last week, Vodafone introduced the first of its ‘Designed & Connected by Vodafone’ range of smart tech products – Curve, a multi-tracking device that uses GPS, Wi-Fi, Cellular and Bluetooth to help its users to track inanimate valuables such as keys, laptops, bags, as well as keeping connected to loved ones or pets.

It’s the kind of brand extension Vodafone has been gravitating towards for some time.

The company first hit the telecoms scene in the early 90s, as a mobile network provider, and with the proliferation of the internet, it soon got into broadband. Like its mobile competitor EE, Vodafone recognises ‘connectivity’ as its selling point. However, while EE was busy with 5G deals at the Baftas or its sponsorship of Wembley stadium, Vodafone was diving into IoT.

“From the B2B perspective, we’ve been offering smart IoT connections for over 10 years. We have 15 million connections on that side,” shares Brown. And then in 2017, it entered the consumer market with the launch of ‘V by Vodafone’ – billed as a simple system for consumers to connect and manage IoT devices, alongside a product range that included a car dongle, a 4G security camera and a pet location and activity tracker.

The problem is that the term IoT belongs more in a B2B book of buzzwords than in the consumer vocabulary. “Consumers don’t know what IoT is,” Brown says. “But they do know what smart tech is. We learnt a lot with the V by Vodafone range. The category is more embedded in consumers’ mindsets, especially with the explosion of smart speakers.”

Brought on more than two years ago from the team that built Hive, British Gas’ smart home offering, Brown knows a thing or two about changing consumer habits and how to convince people to get on board. She has since pulled the brand out of the ‘IoT space’, as such, and hired a creative director, created an in-house studio and given the brand a full refurb that both aligns with Vodafone’s distinctive red, but also distinguishes itself apart from that side of the business.

“When you think of Vodafone, you probably think of a very red brand. Whereas the new visual identity is a more darker colour palette. We’re trying to bring to life more of the desirability credentials of the device in the imagery and the marketing assets that we create. So we’re using red in a more subtle way.”

The first to be introduced this year, Curve will be followed by two more products which will utilise the same functionalities.

Beyond that, where does Brown expect Vodafone to be in five years’ time? “I hope these products will become every day to people. So whether that’s in-home devices or out of home, we want to use connectivity to help protect people and things that they love.”

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Leveraging the power of immense data analysis to enhance human expertise further, machine learning technology holds the potential to cause the next evolution in trading. Through data analytics, statistical trends accumulated over vast periods of time reveal actionable insights that can enhance decision making for individuals as well as enterprises. History repeats itself even in trading, but to identify when and how machine learning is needed.

Trading strategies involve a lot of variables to be observed over a period of time. Pattern identification and the time period within which they will be repeated are the objectives of such strategies, and it needs rigorous checks to acquire real, actionable patterns from random ones. This is where machine learning comes in.

By identifying a target variable and using historical data to train an ML model, we can predict the variable’s value as close as possible to its actual value over different time periods and market conditions. The massive scope of ML to correlate different market conditions, stock price rise/fall patterns, etc. empowers modern analysts like never before.

Machine learning has enabled optimizing portfolio execution like never before. If the base variable taken is highly relevant to the ultimate objective, then ML models have been seen to achieve high rates of success. Also, the data collected needs to enable the algorithm with an ideal predictive power that helps to identify the target variable. This data can have a massive range-Stock Price Data, Stock Trade Volume Data, Fundamental Data, Price and Volume Data of Correlated stocks, an Overall Market indicator like Stock Index Level, Price of other correlated assets etc.

Machine learning based trading systems have the ability to completely reimagine conventional trading platforms as we know them. They can effectively crunch millions upon millions of data points in an instant, and make predictive models that are the most accurate according to the information.

Today, stocks, bonds and future trading are getting heavily automated by large market participants. For a few companies that invested during the 90s and 2000s in this technology, it has resulted in immense rise in yield. As the costs of ML hardware falls, even smaller financial services companies are making a beeline to adopt such solutions. Trading, which essentially involved understanding and reacting to patterns across financial markets will not remain the same ever again.

As data sources widen and these solutions continue to grow more intelligent, the trading world finds itself at the cusp of acquiring a previously unattainable, even unimaginable level of insight into a stock’s trading ability.

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Have you ever stopped to think about the limitations of technology? Are there any limitations? As new developments pop up almost every single day, it seems the answer is “no.” And the youth of today are demanding more – more convenience, more adaptability, and more ease of use. And with the advances in technology, you can no longer ignore artificial intelligence’s role in making those advances possible. In fact, AI has a role in all aspects of life from the home to shopping to the workplace. I recently had the pleasure of speaking to Peter Voss, CEO and chief scientist behind Aigo, and he explained how artificial intelligence is poised to make our lives a lot more convenient.

#1 – A.I. Will Manage Your Life

Can you imagine a world where one device can book your appointments, monitor your home security, remind you that your car is due for an oil change and remember that your spouse checks Skype more often than email? Personal assistants have been around for several years now. Many families are equipped with some version of Amazon’s Alexa, Google’s Home Assistant, or Apple’s HomePod. These devices play their music, help with shopping lists and announce the weather.

But, what if these devices could also learn about you, hold a conversation, and interact with you on an entirely new level? The future of personal assistants is changing, and artificial intelligence is behind the evolving technology. We’ve seen it in Hollywood entertainment for many years, most recently with the Netflix Original Series, Black Mirror. The problem with each of these “smart assistants” is that it’s not smart for you. At least that’s what Voss believes. His solution is for companies to develop a truly “personal smart assistant”, which belongs to you, not some mega-corporation, cough, Skynet, cough. Taking the lead on this idea, Voss’ vision, dubbed “Aigo,” becomes smarter as you use it. “These devices should be customized to you, adapt to your needs and goals, and act as an external brain in your life,” Voss explained.

He went on to explain that through blockchain technology, the information you choose to give your assistant remains your information. You get to decide if it remains private or becomes public. “Today we are limited to a myriad of rudimentary bots that are not intelligent,” said Voss. “They are designed to fit the agenda of mega-corporations. They have either limited to no personalization, and they are highly promiscuous with our data.” Voss’s vision of a truly personal smart assistant, does not yet exist in the world today, as the bugs are still being addresses in the very beginnings of these other devices releases. But, with AI, it’s only a matter of time before these advancements come to light.

#2 – A.I. Will Increase Your Quality Of Life

A.I. can make our lives a lot easier, or more difficult, depending on the demographic and user, of course. Can you imagine a nurse being able to tell a robot to go fill a prescription and deliver medicine to patients? In the medical field, such technology is already beginning to take form. In a previous interview with The Doctors TV Host, Travis Stork, I asked Stork how the profession has changed with this new tech. Stork responded that the smartphone has provided new ways to diagnose and even utilize resources such as ultrasounds. “In emergency medicine, ultrasound has changed in the way we diagnose…where you can now use an ultrasound app to perform ultrasounds almost anywhere. A few years ago, that would have been unthinkable.”

What about a reality where you can order drinks, dinner or extra towels from the hotel just by simply stating what you desire? A.I. is a game changer. The cognitive abilities make the technology far reaching across many applications. The ability to connect with people becomes far greater, but presents a very real danger of isolating individuals as well. “At the end of the day, this technology is all about balance,” said Stork.

The choice in whether to accept the technology in your life is up to you.

#3 – A.I. Will Free Up More Of Your Valuable Time

We all know that time is money, and we also know time is precious. What if A.I. could help free up more of that valuable resource so that we could enjoy our families, pursue our passions and enjoy life a little more? That is quickly becoming a reality as A.I. is poised to become a tool that can operate other programs, interface with systems that are overly complicated and greatly simplify and quicken every day activities. And as A.I. is taking care of more and more of our services for us, we will have more time available in our schedules each and every day.

How much time is wasted in most large corporations trying to figure out and deal with the difficulty of using complicated software such as Oracle or SAP? How much time could be saved if through A.I., we could run reports and make requests in everyday language through a smart interface? And what if A.I. could take over or streamline certain business enterprises such as IT help desks and HR? Imagine the increased productivity and decreased employee frustration. With Aigo, it seems there may be multiple answers to these questions.

#4 – A.I. Together With Blockchain Will Protect Your Data

As technology advanced over the years, enterprises have used their bright, shiny new inventions to market to customers without the customers ever being aware. They have been collecting our data and using it to push products and send advertisements. Everything we do online (surf, share, search, buy, chat etc) is used to gather data which is then sold to advertisers. Not only does this clutter up our online experience, it also comprises our privacy.

“We lose our privacy by becoming their product with the data they collect about us,” says Voss. “Soon, all of this will change.” What if blockchain technology coupled with the power of A.I. could protect your privacy? These are the questions to start pondering. The information that Alexa, Google, or HomePod could store on the blockchain would make the average consumer a little more accepting of the technology and less worried about where their information is being sent to everytime they wake it up with a request.

For example, Aigo is Ethereum-based and smart contract compliant. The blockchain secures ownership of your personal Aigo, as well as your data. Which means you aren’t being sold. “We believe that your data is your property, and it will neither be shared nor sold to anyone,” Voss promises his customers. This is what these smart devices are failing at right now.

So, What Are We Telling You?

Technology has evolved tremendously over the years, and it will continue to revolutionize the world we live in making convenience the name of the game. From freeing up valuable time to increasing happiness and satisfaction, A.I. has the potential to do it all. While its use has been limited so far, this will soon change. A.I. is a game changer, and the potential is far reaching. As demonstrated by Voss’s vision behind Aigo, A.I. can provide a personal, private experience just for you while also transforming our relationship with enterprise platforms and other complicated software platforms.

If you want a device that can handle your accounting, tutor your kids, message you reminders and keep your elderly parents company, you are in luck. If you are ready for increased productivity, convenience and security, AI and the blockchain can make that a reality.

The post Artificial Intelligence and Smart Technology Is Bringing Convenience To A Whole New Level appeared first on Artificial Intelligence.

If you’re thinking about implementing artificial intelligence (AI) into your legal organization, congratulations on being a forward thinker. Although … it’s actually not as forward thinking as it may seem. AI is no longer the nebulous, otherworldly techno-universe that you many have once envisioned. It’s already here, today, giving us directions, telling us jokes, recommending music, answering our questions, generally making our jobs – and lives – easier. Here are seven things to keep in mind about AI as you prepare to implement it in your legal organization:

1. It’s all about the data.
Artificial intelligence is built on data. Therefore, the effectiveness of an AI solution can only be as good as the accuracy of the data it is relying on. That’s why you can’t just decide to “do AI.” You first have to identify the problem you are trying to solve, then take a look at the data (for example, electronic billing data or case and matter management data from a matter management system) to see if it’s “clean” or if it needs some data hygiene.

2. AI is not just one technology.
If you’re searching for the next big thing in AI, you’re not going to find it. AI is not a singular thing. There’s no “killer” AI app for the legal industry. Instead, there are AI applications in many areas of the legal industry, and each of those applications might use a different AI-related technology.

3. It’s not magic, it’s just software. 
While the term artificial intelligence has a mystic, futuristic aura about it, in reality it’s basically just computer software. Sure, it’s software created by really smart technology engineers and product developers who integrate complicated algorithms to compute calculations … but in the end, it’s just one of the tools legal professionals have at their disposal to help them work more efficiently.

4. AI can help you run a business.
It’s the business side of being a lawyer where AI technologies are most helpful. Legal organizations have the same kind of business processes as any type of business, such as billing, pricing, and marketing, etc. Most of those processes involve numbers and data (prices, margins, budgets, expenses, etc.). And remember, it’s all about the data, so all of these business processes can be analyzed and managed with the help of AI technologies.

5. AI does not replace humans, it assists them.
Attorneys are not going to become obsolete, replaced by robots. Sure, AI solutions can take in the data and make predictions or suggest likely outcomes, but those predictions are of varying degrees of certainty. And the conclusions may be based on inaccurate data. That’s where human lawyers come in. They evaluate the data, draw upon past experiences that may or may not be part of the data, and generate their own answers, predictions, and advice – all informed by (not determined by) artificial intelligence.

6. Adopting AI means embracing change.
If you intend to implement AI technologies into your legal organization, you must be ready for change.
Not only will your processes and workflows need to change to incorporate AI into the business, but you’ll also likely be working with a whole new set of people. Whether they are part of your firm or outside consultants, expect to collaborate with data analysts, process engineers, pricing specialists, and other data-driven professionals.

7. Clients will drive your need for AI. 
Speaking of collaboration, AI can also be a catalyst for collaboration between a law firm and its clients. For starters, clients’ needs will often drive the adoption of AI solutions. And in many cases, it’s the clients who have the data needed to build effective AI solutions.

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