Tag: AI

14 Big Ideas for 2023: Crypto is here to stay

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Ark Invest is an investment management firm focused on innovative technologies and disruptive trends. In its 2023 report, Ark Invest outlines its views on the 14 sectors it believes will experience exponential growth in the coming years. The 14 big ideas, according to the report, are:

  1. Technological convergence

Multiple technologies interact with each other to bring exponential growth. The report states they are in five categories and will be worth $200 trillion by 2030. The tech that will converge are cryptocurrencies, artificial intelligence, genetic sequencing, robotics, and energy storage. The most significant part of those technologies is neural networks, also known as AI.

2. Artificial Intelligence/AI

This will increase productivity as workers rely on AI to help with repetitive tasks. Companies like Microsoft and Google could be big players in AI as they can access large amounts of data.

3. Digital consumers

People will spend more time online, assumingly consuming short-form content. Gaming will be more popular due to immersive gaming experiences. NFT will increase in popularity due to gaming.

4. Digital wallet

According to the report, 65% of the planet’s population will use digital wallets by 2030 compared to the 40% who use digital wallets today. The numbers started rising during the pandemic and are going up. Digital wallets enable direct payments by eliminating intermediaries. This will create high profits for digital wallet providers at the expense of traditional finance. Closed-loop transactions are already common in China and will be worldwide with time.

5. Public Blockchains/cryptocurrencies

The crypto Market has lost a significant percentage of its market cap due to calamities such as the collapse of FTX.

Three technological revolutions are driven by cryptocurrency; the money revolution, the financial revolution, and the internet revolution. The report predicts that the total market cap of cryptocurrency will be $25 trillion in 2030.

6. Bitcoin

The report’s authors predict that one BTC will be worth $1 million by 2030 if we go by the total crypto market cap predictions.

They also highlight that BTC’s fundamentals are better than ever, e.g., institutional investors’ adoption, etc.

7. Smart contracts

Smart contracts are the ideal alternative to all the centralized intermediaries in crypto that failed last year. It is hard for decentralization to work without smart contracts. Smart contracts act as a hedge in different activities such as DeFi, decentralized borrowing, lending, decentralized exchanges, etc.

8. Precision Therapies

Precision therapies are different as they are patient-centric and target the root cause of disease, not symptoms. This does not mean root causes like poor lifestyle but technologies like artificial intelligence, AI, DNA and RNA sequencing, CRISPR Gene editing, and laboratory automation. It involves giving recommendations that are specifically tailored to your genetics. The authors reveal that Gene editing is close to going mainstream.

9. Molecular cancer diagnostics

Early diagnosis means early treatment, which means a lower chance that people die from cancer.

Advances in molecular technology also mean you can test someone for cancer using non-invasive means. These advancements in testing will also make it easier to detect cancer recurrence. It could lead to 20% year-on-year profits for cancer-related Industries until 2030.

10. Electric Vehicles

The report suggests that supply constraints could make it hard for the EV market to grow beyond a certain point.

Global automakers have investment plans to introduce EVs. If petrol cars are outlawed, a disconnect in supply and demand could make the costs of producing Evs high.

So far, sales of EVS have been exponential compared to expectations.

11. Autonomous ride-hail or autonomous Transportation

In the report, statistics show that the cost of traveling one mile has stayed the same in 100 years when adjusted for inflation. The costs will finally come down with autonomous vehicles. It will be an excellent alternative for those who cannot afford EVs.

Autonomous taxis are already here, and their numbers are growing with time.

12. Autonomous Logistics

It means automated delivery. Drones and robots will increase in numbers making everything cheaper. Autonomous trucks will eventually become cheaper than trains for supply chain purposes.

13. Robotics and 3D printing

These industries could grow from 70 billion to over 9 trillion by 2030.

Amazon is leading when it comes to 3D printing. 3D printing will be used in every industry but is currently facing setbacks due to the cost of materials, a shortage of qualified personnel, and design issues.

14. Orbital Aerospace

It means all space-related technology. There are reusable rockets that will rapidly reduce space exploration costs, courtesy of companies like SpaceX.

Reusable rockets will also reduce the cost of sending satellites to space for global networks. The cost of space-based global networks will continue to fall, making the internet affordable for everyone. Reusable Rockets will make hypersonic flight more affordable.

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Blockchain, AI, and BNPL: Key Drivers of Fintech in 2023

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Fintech is still disrupting the financial industry. While there is still a lot of work to be done to streamline and mainstream this sector, there has been significant progress and growth in recent years. More companies and venture capital investments are aligning themselves with fintech, and major tech brands like Apple and Google have launched products in this space. As we move into 2023, here are three top trends that we believe will shape fintech:

Increased use of blockchain solutions: A recent survey by the Stellar Development Foundation and Wirex showed that there is an increased use of cryptocurrency solutions as a way of sending money across borders. The survey covered the US, the UK, Mexico, and Singapore, and found that in developed and emerging markets, cryptocurrency was increasingly used for remittances. More than half of the surveyed individuals felt that they paid too much to legacy remittance providers, while 37% said they did not know how much they paid in fees. Over 80% of surveyed consumers said they were aware of crypto payments, while 45% said they had already used it for remittance. In addition to cryptocurrency payment solutions, blockchain technology has a wide range of use cases in the fintech industry, such as decentralized finance (DeFi). Despite market downturns, the DeFi market cap currently stands at slightly over $38 billion, and more fintech companies are betting on the long-term growth of this industry. A good example is Creditum.io, a fintech company focused on providing fast and frictionless payment solutions, which recently acquired a license to operate as a fully-functional financial company and intends to launch products within the wider Defi ecosystem across Europe.

Artificial intelligence (AI): AI will be a key driver of fintech growth in 2023. Data shows that by 2026, the global market size for AI in fintech will reach over $26 billion, with a continuous annual growth rate of over 23% from 2021 to 2026. Fintech companies will use AI and machine learning (ML) for intelligent decision-making, powering chatbots, providing customer support, and fraud detection. This will make the customer onboarding process easier and increase efficiency within these fintech companies.

Increase in buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) solutions: The BNPL industry is thriving, with estimates showing that it will reach over $500 billion by 2026, up from around $120 billion in 2021. BNPL made up about 2% of global ecommerce in 2021, meaning that for every $100 spent, $2 was from BNPL. The significant growth in this sector can be attributed to the increasing number of merchants accepting these products, as well as partnerships between big ecommerce brands and BNPL companies.

Conclusion: This list is not exhaustive, but it offers a glimpse into some of the areas that fintech players should keep an eye on as we move into the new year. The fintech space is constantly evolving and brands need to create game-changing products within this space, as there is plenty of room for expansion.

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Can AI reduce the world’s food waste?

On By mehranmuslimiblogIn AI, InnovationLeave a comment

Here is a shocking statement: “We waste 1.6 billion tons of food every year while 25 million starve and another billion are malnourished.” It should make us all pause to consider.

However, as John Koetsier writes, there is a Berlin startup with a possible AI solution to the complex problem of food waste.

It is a complicated situation because of the vast numbers of farmers involved in the global supply chain. As Koetsier says, “Tens of millions of farms feed millions of grocery stores and restaurants, which in turn supply almost eight billion people their daily food.” Add to that the transport companies, wholesalers, distributors, processors, and delivery companies and you have a massive web that needs to communicate effectively, and it has to do its best to preserve perishable products. And that is what startup company SPRK.global, is trying to fix.

The company was among eight winners of the Extreme Tech Challenge. Some 2,400 entrants sought to deliver solutions to global challenges and SPRK got the judge’s approval. Its goal is to “use AI to understand the flow of food and reduce waste.” Its theory is that this should stop over-production of food and reduce hunger at the same time.

SPRK’s CEOAlexander Piutti told Koetsier: ““Half of the food that gets produced gets wasted sooner or later. Once you move into understanding patterns — why there are food waste cases — you understand these patterns and see they come in a regular fashion … we can move from reactive to proactive, to anticipating, to predicting with a certain probability.”

Food waste is also an environmental problem. Overproduction uses resources like fuel, water, fertilizer and it increases greenhouse gas emissions, because when you waste food it goes to landfill and it emits more CO2.

How can AI fix food waste?

First it has to understand the supply chains and food economics. Oversupply is likely to be given to NGOs and food banks rather than competitors, and SPRK has to take account of this in the rules for its AI system. “Once we have these rules, we can inject them into the technology,” Piutti says. “The technology takes over … and matching between oversupply and demand … becomes more intelligent over time.”

It is starting with the foodbanks, which are typically low-tech. SPRK is building software for food banks that they can use to manage their own operations as well as collaborate with others, sharing being the key aim here. Piutti also says the software will give food banks better ways to access food at lower prices.

He said of the food banks: “They purchase food in a very normal fashion, they don’t get discounts. If we can connect the dots conceptually and say like, well, what if we distributed this food oversupply to the folks in need … they become a volume partner.” He says AI software can manage all this and save NGOs around 50% of the money they spend and reduce food waste at the same time.

As for SPRK, its CEO said, “Our vision is a world without food waste where everyone — including future generations — have enough to eat and thrive.” It’s an admirable goal!

Where AI Gives a Competitive Edge

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Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is growing. According to International Data Corporation (IDC) forecast statistics, spending on the technology will reach $97.9 billion in 2023, which is two and a half times what it was in 2019.

David Schubmahl, IDC research director, said, “The AI market continues to grow at a steady rate in 2019 and we expect this momentum to carry forward,” adding, “The use of artificial intelligence and machine learning (ML) is occurring in a wide range of solutions and applications from ERP and manufacturing software to content management, collaboration, and user productivity. Artificial intelligence and machine learning are top of mind for most organizations today, and IDC expects that AI will be the disrupting influence changing entire industries over the next decade.”

Who is leading AI spending?

According to IDC: “Spending on AI systems will be led by the retail and banking industries, each of which will invest more than $5 billion in 2019. Nearly half of the retail spending will go toward automated customer service agents and expert shopping advisors & product recommendation systems. The banking industry will focus its investments on automated threat intelligence and prevention systems and fraud analysis and investigation. Other industries that will make significant investments in AI systems throughout the forecast include discrete manufacturing, process manufacturing, healthcare, and professional services. The fastest spending growth will come from the media industry and federal/central governments with five-year CAGRs of 33.7% and 33.6% respectively.”

Marianne D’Aquila, IDC research manager in the Customer Insights & Analysis department said, “”Artificial Intelligence (AI) has moved well beyond prototyping and into the phase of execution and implementation.” She also remarked, “Strategic decision makers across all industries are now grappling with the question of how to effectively proceed with their AI journey. Some have been more successful than others, as evidenced by banking, retail, manufacturing, healthcare, and professional services firms making up more than half of the AI spend. Despite the learning curve, IDC sees higher than average five-year annual compounded growth in government, media, telecommunications, and personal and consumer services.”

The biggest AI use cases

The three largest use cases for AI currently are: automated customer service agents, automated threat intelligence and prevention systems, and sales process recommendation and automation. But in the future, the use cases that will see the fastest spending growth over the 2018-2023 forecast period are automated human resources (43.3% CAGR) and pharmaceutical research and development (36.7% CAGR). However, eight other use cases will have spending growth with five-year CAGRs greater than 30%.

Where is AI investment happening?

According to IDC, the United States will deliver more than 50% of all AI spending throughout the forecast, led by the retail and banking industries. In second place is Western Europe where banking and discrete manufacturing will show the biggest demand. China will be the third largest region for AI spending with retail, state/local government, and professional services being the leading users, and Japan is another country to watch as its AI use is predicted to have a 45.3% CAGR growth in spending on AI up to 2023.