AI-and-Your-Business

AI and your business

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Job posts mentioning AI or generative AI have, globally, more than doubled in the past two years, according to a report by LinkedIn.

However, AI skills may be in demand but the supply of those AI capable is still lagging.

According to Ngaire Moyes, UK country manager at LinkedIn, AI can “help remove the drudgery from day-to-day work, improve productivity and free-up time for more strategic and creative work”.

This could be crucial to smaller businesses.

Nevertheless, there are drawbacks to AI, not least that AI needs to be personalised to be effective.

It is also important to be aware of the risk of legal and security breaches.

As one HR expert at the Cranfield Institute puts it: “AI systems are only as good as the data that they are based on”.

So while AI may well be a crucial tool for business in the future, proper training is going to be essential.

To improve AI skills you can experiment with many of the free versions of the tools available online.

Look for online courses in AI, but ensure they are tailored to your requirements.

Above all, managers and employers need to be clear about why they want to use AI. It is not only about efficiency but about improving things in a way that benefits the humans in your business.

Cyber Security

Businesses cannot ignore the risks of Cyber Crime

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Earlier this year the government published new guidelines to help businesses to protect themselves from the risk of cybercrime, which can cost them millions.

It argued that cyber threats should be prioritised as a key business risk like financial and legal challenges and should be put on an equal footing with other threats like financial and legal pitfalls.

Businesses should ensure that they have detailed plans in place to respond to and recover from any potential cyber incidents.

They should also regularly test their plans’ resilience, include forma\l mechanisms for reporting incidents and should also ensure employees have adequate skills and awareness of cyber issues so they can work alongside new technologies in confidence.

Figures show almost one in three (32%) firms have suffered a cyber breach or attack in the past year,

Lindy Cameron, National Cyber Security Centre CEO, said: “Cyber security is no longer a niche subject or just the responsibility of the IT department, so it is vital that CEOs and directors understand the risks to their organisation and how to mitigate potential threats.”

Basic protections every business should have include:

  • boundary firewalls and internet gateways — establish network perimeter defences, particularly web proxy, web filtering, co ntent checking, and firewall policies to detect and block executable downloads, block access to known malicious domains and prevent users’ computers from communicating directly with the Internet
  • malware protection — establish and maintain malware defences to detect and respond to known attack code
  • patch management — patch known vulnerabilities with the latest version of the software, to prevent attacks which exploit software bugs
  • allow listing and execution control — prevent unknown software from being able to run or install itself, including AutoRun on USB and CD drives
  • secure configuration — restrict the functionality of every device, operating system and application to the minimum needed for business to function
  • password policy — ensure that an appropriate password policy is in place and followed
  • user access control — include limiting normal users’ execution permissions and enforcing the principle of least privilege
Smart-Tablet-Deals

Cheap tablet deals for March

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Are you in the market for a new tablet?

If you’re not yet a convert to tablets they are often lighter, thinner and generally more portable and convenient than a laptop,

They come with a wide range of screen sizes and features and some include detachable keyboards.

The Independent has published information on the best deals this month.

They are:

  • Samsung Galaxy Tab A8: Was £259, now £164, Amazon.co.uk
  • Apple iPad, 10th gen, 2022: Was £499, now £379, Amazon.co.uk
  • Apple iPad 9th gen, 2021: Was £369, now £319, Very.co.uk
  • Apple iPad Pro, 2022: Was £899, now £824.98, Amazon.co.uk
  • Microsoft Surface Go 3: Was £799, now £699, Amazon.co.uk
  • Apple iPad Mini, 2021: Was £569, now £540, Currys.co.uk

There’s more information here:

https://www.independent.co.uk/extras/indybest/gadgets-tech/laptops-tablets/best-tablet-deals-uk-b2046546.html

Startup-Business

What does a unicorn have to do with your small business?

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A unicorn is the title given to private start-up firms that are valued at more than a billion dollars.

In 2021 36 unicorns were formed in the UK, but in 2022 there were 20, according to Dealroom, which tracks the start-up sector.

One of the reasons for the apparent reduction is the difficult economic environment, including rising interest rates, which has meant that fewer venture capital firms have been willing to take the risk.

If you have been contemplating becoming a unicorn advisors suggest you should do three things:

  1. Have a vision that is documented and communicated regularly to the company’s employees, partners, clients and investors.
  2. The technology should not be a solution looking for a problem. Instead it should be a solution that has come from understanding a problem in depth.
  3. Have the agility within the business to overcome challenges that are out of an entrepreneurs’ control, such as Brexit and the pandemic.

So would-be unicorns out there take note.

Where-is-AI-useful-in-Business

If you’re planning to use AI in your business, be careful

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Artificial intelligence is set to affect nearly 40% of all jobs, according to a new analysis by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

While that might sound like good news in terms of reducing your overheads, particularly payroll costs, there is a downside to using AI.

The IMF warns “The technology is facing increased regulation around the world. Last month, European Union officials reached a provisional deal on the world’s first comprehensive laws to regulate the use of AI.”

Generative AI is, put simply, AI that can quickly create new content, be it words, images, music or videos. And it can take an idea from one example, and apply it to an entirely different situation.

This has already led to court cases for copyright infringement as it is not possible to establish where the information generated has come from, usually multiple sources.

Ben Wood, chief analyst at CCS Insight, says: “regulation and legal battles might cool off the current mania for generative AI.”

New-Legislation

Beware new legislation if your business depends on online reviews and sales

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As part of the digital markets, competition and consumers bill currently progressing through parliament, fake reviews and unavoidable hidden online charges – which cost consumers £2.2bn a year – are to be banned.

In future mandatory fees must be included in the headline price or at the start of the shopping process, including booking fees for cinema and train tickets.

According to a Guardian report: “drip pricing, where consumers are shown an initial cost only to find unavoidable fees added later, is widespread.

“More than half of entertainment providers, 56% of the hospitality industry, and 72% of the transport and communication sectors use the practice, according to the government.”

Which? also reports that “fake reviews on sites such as Amazon, Google and Trustpilot are still thriving on Facebook.

While it welcomed the announcement Rocio Concha, Which? director of policy and advocacy, said: “Further action may be needed to tackle the range of sneaky pricing tactics used to bump up the advertised price in areas like flight bookings.”

Merry-Christmas

Merry Christmas

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To all our customers

We wish you all

A very happy Christmas and New Year

With time to catch up with friends and family and relax

AI & Cyber Security

AI & Cyber Security

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According to a survey by PWC 37% of the 3,900 companies they asked were worried that they were “highly or extremely exposed to cyber risks”.

While three fifths saw AI as a positive cyber and digital risks were top-of-mind in 2023, with those leaders responsible for managing risk ranking cyber higher than inflation.

More than ever, this emphasises the need for robust processes in business to guard against hacking and other cyber security risks.

This means ensuring that only those who need it have access to sensitive data.

It also means having a robust password system including regular changes and two factor authentication.

Plus, it is wise to ensure that all employees are trained to be security aware online and are kept regularly updated as new threats emerge.

AI-Friend-or-Enemy

AI – Friend or enemy?

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The risks from AI should be treated as seriously as the climate crisis, according to one of the technology’s leading figures.

He was speaking ahead of a UK-hosted summit on the safety of AI due to be held on 1 and 2 November at Bletchley Park, the base for the code breakers in World War 2.

He was advocating the creation of a body similar to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

Among the risks cited were “aiding the creation of bioweapons and the existential threat posed by super-intelligent systems.”

His call has been echoed by others including Eric Schmidt, the former Google chief executive, and Mustafa Suleyman, the co-founder of DeepMind.

While there is no denying the immense opportunities in the use of AI.

There is no denying that AI has its uses, particularly for routine tasks, freeing up human resources for more creative activity.

But it is a powerful tool and thus susceptible to abuse without proper regulation and oversight.

What do you think?

Cloud-Storage

Where your documents are stored in the cloud is more important than you might think

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We perhaps all take for granted our use of the hardware and software, data centres and communications networks that power modern business.

But differences in the laws in Europe and the USA are becoming an increasing cause for concern across the EU.

It is all about who controls the data.

Europe is heavily dependent on US firms for cloud services.

There are laws in the EU (GDPR) and UK to protect the privacy of data. But in the USA, the intelligence and law-enforcement services broad powers to access data.

At the moment Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft and Google have a 65% share of the world cloud market between them.

But there are moves afoot to create what is being called Europe’s first “sovereign hyperscale cloud” thanks to €15m in seed funding and plans to build eight data centres in Europe in the next five years.

This will be managed by a Stockholm based company called Evroc.

There are 377 organisations participating in the Gaia-X project, which aims to join up cloud service providers in a federated system, so data can move between them while data owners remain in control.

Watch this space….