Archive
What is Microsoft Project Bonsai?
Microsoft Project Bonsai is a low-code AI platform that can be used to build AI-powered systems. These can provide guidance to operators or control industrial equipment. This allows optimisation of process variables, leading to an increase in production efficiency and reducing equipment downtime.
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Nightingale HQ team attend UK Metals Expo
Nightingale HQ team attend UK Metals Expo on 10 and 11 September at the NEC, Birmingham.
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CBAM Explained: The Financial Case for Cutting Scrap
The steel industry faces increasing pressure to decarbonise, with the EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) set to become a decisive factor by 2026. Scrap is no longer just a production inefficiency it directly increases reported emissions and carbon costs. For Finance and Sustainability Managers, reducing scrap is now central to meeting carbon targets and protecting margins.
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Northern Ireland Manufacturing & Supply Chain Conference hightlights
It was great to contribute to the Northern Ireland Manufacturing & Supply Chain Conference & Exhibition Titanic Exhibition Centre last week. I was there to talk about our approach to greener software, to promote Strada and to network with the wider manufacturing community.
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NHQ attend Databricks's Data + AI World Tour
We were invited to attend Databricks’s “Data + AI World Tour” event, held at the ExCel in London, UK, on 11th Sept 2024. The data platform Databricks has been an increasingly valuable tool for Nightingale HQ’s software development.
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South West Manufacturing Digitalisation Series
South West Manufacturing Digitalisation Series from RDI Hub in the South West of Ireland.
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SQLBits 2023
SQLBits is the largest community-led SQL Server and Microsoft Data Platform conference in Europe.
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Manufacturing excellence with Astellas Ireland
Learning from manufacturing best practice with Astellas Ireland.
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Nightingale HQ meets German manufacturers and tech founders
In an effort to increase visibility of UK technology start-ups the Welsh and UK governments participated in Start-up BW conference in Batten-Württemberg Germany this September.
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Inaugural AI conference a hit in UK universities
Nightingale HQ (NHQ) continues to ramp up attendance at tech and AI conferences across the UK and Ireland this summer with the first-ever AI conference by the Centre for Doctoral Training in Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning & Advanced Computing (AIMLAC UKRI)
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Nightingale HQ supports Green Freight with FLS Logistics
Many industries are becoming more aware of the impacts of their CO2 emissions and are looking for practical ways to reduce this. It’s an area that we have written about previously, where we explore digital tools that can help accelerate greater sustainability.
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AI Meet and Match Luncheon Germany and Wales
Nightingale HQ were selected to attend a Meet & Match Luncheon with business from Baden Württemberg Germany and Wales as part of London Tech Week. It was an opportunity to network with technology companies and gain insights into the regional ecosystems of both regions.
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Advancing Digital Transformation of SMEs in the Midlands
Partnering on EI Digitalisation Vouchers with Irish manufacturers Midland Steel and Shabra Plastics.
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Toolkits for Smart Manufacturing
Insights into customer examples from Ireland and the UK including Midland Steel and TMD Technologies.
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Change is hard but equipping your teams with the right tools makes it easier
As we see the back of 2021, another year of disruption and change, I reflect on organisational practices and share some thoughts on how to implement more effective change. Change is hard, so best to start with small doses of change.
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How AI can improve your logistics fast
Logistics businesses and logistics have a huge opportunity to unlock additional value in their business through the use of data and AI integration. Areas of improvement include streamlining operations, managing the supply chain, pricing dynamically, agile planning, and enhanced forecasting.
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Resilient supply chains: Microsoft technologies to assist with productivity and efficiency
Manufacturers can adapt to disruptions successfully, ensuring business continuity during distress, by building a resilient supply chain based on Microsoft tech. By modernising your supply chain you can optimise your workforce, build agile planning and distribution processes, enhance supply chain visibility, and maximise asset uptime and efficiency.
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Industry 4.0 in a post-Covid world
Mckinsey’s report on manufacturing operations after Covid-19 takes an interesting look into the potential adoption pathways companies will take on the way to Industry 4.0 and some of the ways technology is changing the sector. It also identifies what ’lighthouses’, organisations successfully transforming at scale, are doing to make them succeed.
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Digitising your factory floor is hard
Digitising your factory floor is hard, that’s why we try to accelerate digital transformation in other operational areas. Focusing on helping workers, modernising core functions like Finance, and supporting your growth, gives you the opportunity to demonstrate value whilst gaining digital technology maturity. It’s hard to rapidly change, acquire expertise, and digitise the factory floor at the same time. By working in areas that are easier to change you can free up vital staff time to dedicate to the harder challenges.
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Upskilling for the green revolution
92% of manufacturers believe net zero will be achievable for their business by 2050. To make this reality, the government and industry need to put strategies in place that map out how they are going to unlock the skills needed for the green revolution. Make UK and Sage recently teamed up to release a report that investigates the subject and makes some recommendations for success.
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The State of AI and learning from Transformers
Deloitte’s State of AI in the Enterprise report is an enlightening read. This edition focuses on becoming an ‘AI fueled’ organisation. The results come from a survey conducted on 2,875 executives from across the Americas, Europe and Asia. They separated companies into four groups based on their success with AI implementation and identified what was driving the success of the highest performers.
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How you can turn an extra £100 per month IT spend into more than £4,000 of staff time savings monthly
Pressure to be more efficient has never been greater. The good news is there are so many helpful time-saving software as a service tools out there! We’ve made a list of some of the best.
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Procurement best practice – what manufacturers can learn
The National Audit Office (NAO) report on ‘Managing the Commercial Lifecycle’ is a great guide to improving your own procurement processes. Here we share some interesting findings and the key areas to make changes in.
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Microsoft Emissions Impact Dashboard - what you need to know
The Emissions Impact Dashboard is a great way to track and reduce cloud carbon emissions. The tool has an accessible visual interface that gives users high quality data and key insights into their cloud carbon footprint. If you’re aiming for net zero this dashboard can be a step in the right direction.
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Why you should upskill your team with Azure AI fundamentals
As digital transformation and AI adoption become the norm in manufacturing it’s vital that management are all on the same page. A lack of understanding of AI and a fear of the unknown are some of the key barriers to successful implementation in most organisations. Microsoft Azure AI Fundamentals could be your solution.
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Investing in digital technology lowers future operating costs for manufacturers
There are so many benefits to going digital with your business including cutting your future operating costs and becoming more sustainable. We’ve taken a look at the UKRI’s report on productivity opportunities and risks in a transformative, low-carbon and digital age which looks at this in more detail.
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What is a citizen developer?
Citizen developers are not developers by trade but still make useful tools and applications with no-code tools. The concept is relatively new and has gained momentum in the last few years. Citizen Development has the potential to be of great benefit to the manufacturing industry by empowering ordinary staff to improve the processes they work with every day. Their unique perspectives can be transformative in identifying key areas to work on and improve.
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What manufacturing SME's need to know about IIoT and cyber-security
IIoT can have benefits for manufacturing businesses of all types and sizes. It can be particularly useful in providing transparency and tracking along the supply chain but that’s just the start. To stay safe, it is vital you develop strong cyber security practices around IIoT. Here we offer some best practices and how to approach them.
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UK Government supports AI approaches to manufacturing sustainability
The UK government released its AI strategy on 22nd September 2021. We’ve looked at the report and broken down how this will affect the manufacturing industry going forward. We outline some key areas such as skills shortages, addressing net-zero challenges, and new product development as well as the next steps manufacturers can take.
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Digitalising your business processes to be more sustainable
Digitalising your business processes might help you run a more sustainable, environmentally friendly manufacturing operation. Simply digitising your records and reducing physical resource usage is an excellent place to begin. Taking it a step further and re-engineering the way you work to be smoother, more integrated, and less data entry dependent while digitalising can save you even more compute power (and therefore energy!).
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Cloud Migration: important for a green future
Cloud providers like Microsoft are making their data centres greener and carbon neutral, whereas your in-house servers and associated resources are burning energy. As well as potentially lowering your compute costs, revitalising your IT infrastructure, reducing risk, the green advantages make a cloud move a must for any manufacturer with sights on a net zero goal.
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Design, manufacture, and ship products more sustainably with AI
AI can help manufacturers design, make, and ship products more sustainably. From lowering waste through defect detection, to generative design to reduce prototype waste, to smart energy management and predictive maintenance, manufacturers can use AI to make a big impact.
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Summer roundup
After a busy summer we’re taking some time to reflect on everything that’s gone on. From award nominations to webinars and events we’ve compiled a brief list of some of the things we’ve been involved in this summer.
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EIT Manufacturing - all you need to know
EIT Manufacturing is a consortium of over 60 leaders in the manufacturing industry from business, education, and research. We’ve just joined the organisation as one of their Scaleups so I’ve put together a quick explanation of who they are and what they do.
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What does NatWest's Future Fit report say about digital transformation for manufacturers
The latest Future Fit report focuses on “trailblazers” and what makes them different to other organisations. It covers the importance of innovation and of current developments in the industry such as digital transformation.
Read MoreCan AI get you sued? How AI impacts IP
AI and intellectual property is a minefield. The UK Intellectual Property Office recently completed a public consultation to inform their policy and here I bring you thoughts and highlights.
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What Data Integration Maturity Level Are You? - No-Code Serverless or Code-First
Data integration capabilities are a key part of your ability to make data-driven decisions. Depending on where your business it at, using no-code tools or code-first tools will be right for you.
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Software-as-a-Service to help you digitise
Software as a Service or SaaS, as it’s more commonly known, makes digital easy. Find out how it can help to streamline your processes and run a more efficient business.
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How 10 manufacturers are digitally transforming with Microsoft
Here at Nightingale HQ, we’re proud to be Microsoft partners. We use their tech to power our data and AI services. To showcase the impact Microsoft services can have, we’ve collected some of our favourite Microsoft manufacturing success stories.
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Manufacturers - you need DataOps
DataOps also helps you build a more agile digital supply chain by enabling analytic teams to automate their processes, which in turn reduces cycle time on data analytics. Getting this data infrastructure right is critical for helping Operational Technology (OT) get the most out of real-time data to optimise processes. DataOps is part of your ability to move quickly in the digital space. It should be part of your overall approach to your developer velocity and can help staff to discover the data they need to drive insightful improvements in your organisation.
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Europe's '2030 Digital Compass' and manufacturing
The 2030 Digital Compass aims to digitally transform Europe by the end of the decade. It aims to strengthen digital infrastructure and facilitate digital transformation of businesses and the public sector. At its core will be a framework that allows businesses and services to go digital in keeping with European values.
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Europe’s Digital Strategy and Manufacturing
Data in manufacturing could have a net benefit of €1.5 trillion by 2027 so the European Digital Strategy needs to help realise that benefit. The strategy will help make common data spaces available and support cloud infrastructures to assist manufacturers.
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Investing in tools scales staff productivity
Businesses with the highest productivity experience more stable and consistent revenue growth, as well as being able to adapt more quickly. With less waste and more staff power focussed on growth, manufacturers with an investment in tooling are more operationally resilient.
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Chatbots explained
Chatbots are computer programmes that provide a (primarily) text-based interface to help people access information or perform tasks. Chatbot conversations can help you improve customer service whilst reducing demand on staff. They can process text using natural language processing and build a conversational workflow to support a intuitive interaction with people.
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How to move your operations to the cloud - what you need to know
You’ve probably heard of the cloud but what is it and how can it help your business? Learn how moving to the cloud can help you innovate and stay ahead of the curve when it comes to tech.
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Tools matter for Developer Velocity
Businesses with the highest developer velocity experience the highest revenue growth, according to new research by Microsoft and McKinsey. Read on to understand how tools impact developer velocity and what the business case is for investing in them.
Read MoreDeveloper Velocity
Businesses with the highest developer velocity experience the highest revenue growth, according to new research by Microsoft and McKinsey. Read on to understand the factors impacting developer velocity and how you can start building a strategy to improve this vital area of technology in your business.
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Funding for AI use cases and much more - AIPlan4EU
At Nightingale HQ we recently submitted our AI use-cases to the AIPlan4EU to potentially develop them further. Find out how you can get yours funded and all about the new European AI on Demand Platform.
Read MoreManufacturers: Are you digitising or digitalising?
To digitise your business means to perform traditionally analogue processes or actions digitally. Rather than a few changes here and there, digitalisation involves a change in how to the process is performed to better leverage technology.
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MLOps is like process engineering for Data Science
The goal of MLOps is to streamline the development, deployment, and operation of machine learning models, by supporting their building, testing, releasing, monitoring, performance tracking, reusing, maintenance and governance, joining the efforts of Data Science and IT teams under a shared focus.
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Innovation funding with EIC Accelerator
Here at Nightingale HQ, we have put in for funding with the EIC Accelerator. In this article, we’ll tell you what the EIC Accelerator is and why it’s worth applying for.
Read MoreWhat Is Microsoft Power Platform?
Microsoft Power Platform is a suite of services that consists of four key components: Power Apps, Power Automate, Power BI, Power Virtual Agents. Its ease-of-use help a broader range of people within your organisation create innovate solutions and access previously untapped value through smarter, time-saving automation solutions.
Read MoreDigital Supply Chains and why you need one
Adopting a Digital Supply Chain is big step towards achieving bigger goals like faster, more precise processes with visibility for the whole company. Digital Supply Chains can be hard to implement, but having a strategy is key. Most manufacturers already have some sort of data from ERP systems so building a Digital Supply Chain can begin with embracing more digital integrations with the ERP system and improving governance of the platform. It is very important to ensure that the implementation of a Digital Supply Chain is taken as seriously as other core business processes.
Read MoreWhat Is Azure Logic Apps?
If you are looking to automate the execution of your business processes across diverse apps and services, Azure Logic Apps is the cloud service you need. Logic Apps serves as a gate to other Azure services you may want to employ to your automation solution, delivering new and innovative integration scenarios.
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Digital Twins and AI for manufacturers
Digital Twins are virtual replicas of real-world systems enabling low-cost modelling of the factory floor to help optimise processes. Combined with AI the Digital Twin can support improved forecasting, dynamic optimisation, and more.
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Microsoft Build 2021 announcements for manufacturers
Microsoft Build 2021 is kicking off and whilst it tends not to be as announcement heavy as Microsoft Ignite, it’s still got some great things for manufacturers to pay attention to. This post gives a quick run down of the most important stuff you need to read about. Enjoy!
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Smart Manufacturing is all about Real-Time Data Analytics
Manufacturers are spending far too much time on data entry or looking at stale data which is hindering growth. Here are seven ways real-time data can turn things around.
Read MoreWhat is Dynamics 365 Field Service?
Field Service is a core customer engagment application on the Dynamics 365 platform and, like the CRM itself, is fully customisable and extensible. Field Service helps streamline business operations by offering smart scheduling capabilities and much more.
Read MoreWhat is Dynamics 365?
Dynamics 365 is a cloud-first platform providing CRM (customer relationship management) solutions for businesses. The platform takes a modular approach and offers a suite of products which can be tweaked and defined according to business needs.
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European AI Act
The European Commission proposes new rules and actions aiming to turn Europe into the global hub for trustworthy Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Read MoreData Champions are critical to your success in digitally transforming
Manufacturers need Data Champions to help them succeed in today’s digital world. To learn more about how you can find your Data Champion for your team or company, read on!
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Reports supported by AI & automation
Data compilation for reports created by experts is usually more time consuming than writing the valuable content. Using AI and no-code automation techniques, data collation and visualisation can be greatly streamlined, letting staff focus on the value.
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Checklists make everything better - including responsible AI!
Building a checklist to cover the six key areas of responsible AI can drive better outcomes and returns for your business. Start with the list of areas as a discussion aid and grow your checklist with use.
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Using AI to make your warehouse operations smarter
You can benefit from lower overheads by using AI to manage stock levels, whilst building a more scalable warehouse operation that is safer for employees, using AI.
Read MoreDetecting defects with AI - a computer vision challenge
With the pace of output on machines ever increasing, quality control becomes a lot tougher. Using AI to detect defective products sooner can help scale your quality processes and avoid significant stops.
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EU to recruit world-class AI researchers
While Europe is a global leader in academic research of human-centric artificial intelligence we lag behind when it comes to putting research into practice.
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How can Digital Innovation Hubs support SMEs to adopt AI?
A workshop on “AI-standardisation landscape & the role of Digital Innovation Hubs (DHIs)” discussed the role hubs can play in supporting the uptake of AI among SMEs and how they can help technology frontrunners.
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Microsoft Ignite 2021 announcements for manufacturers
Microsoft Ignite is kicking off and as usual it's packed with announcements. This post gives folks in manufacturing a quick run down of the most important stuff they need to read about. Enjoy!
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Artificial Intelligence growth in the EU
This article is part of an ongoing series sharing insights into the development of AI policy in Europe. In November last year we were appointed to the European DIGITAL SME Alliance focus group on Artificial Intelligence (AI), and as an 'AI intensive' SME, we provide feedback on the adoption of AI technologies in relation with the impact of EU initiatives on the topic.
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Grow your business with Social Media Listening
Social media is an important medium for engaging with new and existing segments of your audience. While your social media efforts can help your audience connect with your product, you can be using social media listening to get deeper insights on them to drive operational efficiency and innovation. It's the marketing equivalent of business intelligence.
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Boost operational efficiency with chatbots
Many businesses are facing a pressing need to tidy up their operations, cut costs, and increase productivity due to the global pandemic. One surprising tool that can help you streamline processes is a chatbot. Everyone knows how chatbots can enhance customer service, but there are many other areas where a chatbot can be applied. In this article we explore how chatbots can bring about operational efficiencies when used for internal processes such as supporting HR and company communications.
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Building operational resilience in times of crisis
Operational resilience has always been a key factor in business success, but not enough businesses consider their ability to take stress in turbulent times until it is too late. Covid-19 has been a huge wake-up call for many, presenting uncertainty and disruption.
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Highlights of 2020 - as read by you
What better way to round off 2020 than with a review of our most popular content as read by you. We've selected just 6 of your most enjoyed articles this year in case you fancy diving in again. From AI and data fundamentals, to the use of AI in different sectors, and even a quick win AI project, here's what made the cut.
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Be The Change: Standing up for equality
Be The Change is an event series run by Tramshed Tech that aims to highlight partners who are advocating change, support collaboration for change-making action, and ensure the equality agenda across all protected characteristic groups remains current and in the spotlight. The idea is to raise awareness for underrepresented groups and create individual connections.
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Ethical AI monitoring in the post-COVID workplace
With the excellent news of the first COVID-19 vaccines being administered in the UK, things could be back to normal by next winter. In the meantime, we must remain vigilant and take precautions such as monitoring temperatures, social distancing, and other health and safety measures, to keep the impact of the virus to a minimum. AI can help to enforce these safety precautions, however ethical conduct and compliance with data privacy regulations remain imperative.
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Creative Disruption - UK Digital Manufacturing Week 2020
Major crises cause economic and social damage but they also inspire innovation. This was a major theme Digital Manufacturing Week, who themselves had to disrupt by holding the 6,000 plus attendee event completely online. For our startup based in Wales, the opportunity to tune in to an amazing line-up of speakers from across British manufacturing and connect with the community from the comfort of our own homes was bliss. It was our first time at the event and here are some of our highlights as to who is pushing the boundaries in manufacturing right now.
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£147 million investment into manufacturing
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been heating up for several years, and the recent challenges imposed by COVID-19 have accelerated efforts to get this tech in the hands of businesses to drive innovation and build agility and resilience. AI has been receiving lots of attention from the UK government and is one of the four Grand Challenge areas in the Industry Strategy.
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Manufacturing the future
Industry 4.0 has been budding over the last decade and has a long way yet to mature, however, the onset of the Covid-19 global pandemic has presented a suite of challenges and accelerated the need for solutions. The manufacturing industry has not had the flexibility of remote work to fall back on due to its dependency on onsite workers. Manufacturers will have had to make big changes to ensure the health of workers as they return to workplaces. At the same time, they’ve had to contend with the unpredictability of supply and demand, which could remain unstable for a prolonged recovery period. So how has this impacted manufacturing and what does this mean for the future?
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The shift to AI in manufacturing: post pandemic growth
There is no doubt that AI has enabled major efficiencies in predictability and capacity across the supply chain in manufacturing. The global pandemic has also accelerated digitalisation and automation as key strategic priorities for business, particularly manufacturing.
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Breaking the chain with contact tracing
There is no doubt that contact tracing apps can play a key role in crisis management especially as social distancing measures are lifted in countries across Europe and the rest of the world. In this guest blog, Dr Iain Keaney talks about solving the contact tracing privacy paradox with decentralised AI. He outlines how decentralised AI can preserve anonymity and solve privacy issues, not just in contact tracing, but as a business standard for AI, going forward.
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Your business and AI: 18 weeks of webinars
What do you do when a global pandemic hits and messes up your 2020 business plans? We decided to run 18 weeks of webinars. As our pipeline slowed we knew we weren’t the only ones having a hard time navigating Covid-19, so we decided to launch two webinar series, AIFightsBack and #GoSmarter. Since the webinars were a hit, we decided to compile recaps of all the content in one place for easy access, viewing and sharing.
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Smarter remote meetings for productivity
For the penultimate session in our #GoSmarter webinar series, Data Science Apprentice Mia Hatton takes us through various tools for hosting online meetings, lessons and the like, which has become so much more relevant during the times of the pandemic. Our very own Productive Meetings tool is one of six automation tools that we are making available to SMEs through our GoSmarter project to support them through COVID-19.
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Customer service automation with an easy FAQ Chatbot
As part of our #GoSmarter webinar series, Mia Hatton, Data Science Apprentice for Nightingale HQ and founder of a small business, talks to us about the wonders that an FAQ Chatbot can do for business, approaching the topic from both points of view. Our GoSmarter project is aimed at SMEs to help them bounce back from the effects of COVID-19 by providing them with the 6 tools to get them automating and saving time.
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Four tips for introducing an FAQ chatbot
Getting your own chatbot up and running is not as tricky as you may think. In fact there are many no-code options available and you can be setup in minutes. We have put together a list of tips to consider before you jump in on augmenting your customer service.
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Bigger, better sales with AI
Automation and Artificial Intelligence can support the sales team to make bigger, better sales. AI in sales and marketing can be particularly valuable. In this #GoSmarter webinar Steph Locke, CEO of Nightingale HQ takes a look at automation tools in a B2B context and how easy they are to adopt.
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COVID triggers a wave of automation
For companies that have survived thus far through the global pandemic, the next huge challenge they face is getting back to normal. Numerous factors, from uncertain cashflow to making the workplace safe enough to return to, prove that the old ways just won’t work.
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Social listening for small businesses
Our latest webinar was on social listening. Social listening is monitoring social media for feedback, mentions, or relevant chatter to gain insight or act. The price tag on this capability is at least $150 per month putting it outside the budget of a small business. With #GoSmarter, we're introducing a practically free and highly extendable option for small businesses.
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Automation: The fundamentals
GoSmarter is an AI-powered tools and training support toolkit to help businesses optimise digital operations, saving precious time and helping increase productivity.
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5.6million UK SMEs - listen up and automate!
This week on AIFightsBack, Steph Locke, CEO of Nightingale HQ, talked about the new GoSmarter automation toolbox, funded by Innovate UK and free for SMEs to use.
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2020 - the year of Contact Tracing Apps
Guest contributor on our AIFightsBack webinar series was Dr. Iain Keaney, Data Scientist and Founder of Skellig.ai. Iain took on the world of contact tracing apps and discussed how both governments and companies are fighting the pandemic while mitigating the risk to personal privacy. He pointed to the adoption levels of different countries with China having the largest-scale adoption of contact tracing apps in the world and Iceland next at 40%.
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Social distancing - data versus information
Guest contributor on AIFightsBack last week was CEO of Mockingbird Consulting Matthew Macdonald-Wallace. Matt shared how the impact of COVID has produced opportunities that have taken them beyond their current client base of farming and AgriTech to include commercial and industrial sectors. He gave examples of IoT solution applications in customer flows for retail, ordering systems for restaurants and preventive maintenance in farms.
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The Jazz Ensemble of Data Science with Novartis
Everyone is an expert and each one is allowed to do their own part separately but when we come together the magic happens. The team lead, along with Math and Stats person, the Data Visualisation, Storytelling team and domain experts all work in unison. This according to Ashwini Mathur, Head of Data Science at the Novartis AI Innovation Hub in Dublin is essential to delivering great data science.
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Why Trustworthy AI Matters with Clare Dillon
Guest contributor on AIFightsBack last week was Technologist Clare Dillon. She presented A Journey to Trustworthy AI from an economic, social, political, and cultural lens. This thought-provoking session demonstrated clearly why we all need to build trust in both building and buying AI solutions. It was backed up nicely with plenty of use cases and several major AI bloopers out there.
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Understanding the techniques behind AI in manufacturing
It’s no secret that the disruption of Industry 4.0 and the challenges presented by Covid-19 have been a push for manufacturers to evaluate digital transformation and consider going smart with AI in their factories. This article, adapted from the webinar shared below, is aimed at manufacturers who are interested in the techniques, data infrastructure and processes needed to support building internal data science & AI intellectual property.
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The Historian and AI Webinar (AIFightsBack)
AI for manufacturing has huge potential. As well as clear AI use cases like robotics and automation, the wealth of data being consolidated into industrial time series via historian appliances presents an opportunity for further AI applications. Using the data being consolidated, we can build early warning systems for critical issues, optimise maintenance programs, and improve processes.
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Artificial Intelligence for Marketers
Yesterday, we delivered the AI for Marketers webinar as part of our AIFightsBack series. Here, you will find the resources (slides, recording, information, and links) from the talk. As a sector, marketing is ripe for AI adoption due to the volume of data insights available. It's transforming how companies market their products and services to other businesses, streamlining processes at all levels of the sales funnel. Broadly speaking, AI can help to improve the customer journey and improve your ROI on campaigns. But how exactly?
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No code. No data. No servers. How Marino Software became a ML company.
Marino Software are one of the longest standing software consultancies in Ireland with almost 20 years under their belt they have seen their fair share of ups and downs. As part of our AIFightsBack webinar series CEO Keith Davey talks candidly about how they have morphed into a machine learning company helping their clients deliver exceptional customer experience. They have a pretty impressive list of clients who are testament to this service and it includes telcos, banks and retailers. Both slides and the webinar are available below.
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Augmenting Customer Services with Chatbots
Last week we kicked off our AIFightsBack series to help businesses understand how AI can be used to support a safe and productive business during COVD-19 and beyond. The slides and video are now available.
Read MoreWhat is Google Cloud BigQuery?
BigQuery is a fully-managed, serverless cloud data warehouse that scales with your needs and is easy to set-up and manage. By adopting BigQuery, you can avoid the hassle of developing and managing the infrastructure needed to store large, complex datasets, allowing you to focus on gaining insight from your data.
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What is Python?
Python is a popular programming language with a wide variety of applications including data science, web development, scientific computing, and software development.
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What is Google Cloud?
Google Cloud is a suite of cloud computing services that runs on the same infrastructure that Google uses internally for its end-user products, such as Google Search and YouTube. It provides pay-as-you-go access to vast data storage and computing capabilities and allows you to scale the costs as you grow.
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What is Azure?
Microsoft Azure is an ever-expanding set of cloud services to help your organisation meet your business challenges. It’s the freedom to build, manage and deploy applications on a massive, global network using your favourite tools and frameworks.
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What is Jupyter?
Jupyter is a suite of products that support data science and scientific computing, including Jupyter Notebook, JupyterHub and JupyterLab. It is 100% open-source software, free for all to use and released under the liberal terms of the modified BSD license.
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What are Azure Cognitive Services?
Azure Cognitive Services is a comprehensive family of AI services and cognitive APIs to help you build intelligent apps. Cognitive Services bring AI within reach of every developer – without requiring machine-learning expertise. All it takes is an API call to embed the ability to see, hear, speak, search, understand and accelerate decision-making into your apps.
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What is AWS (Amazon Web Services)?
Amazon Web Services is a cloud computing platform that provides customers with a wide array of cloud services. We can define AWS (Amazon Web Services) as a secured cloud services platform that offers compute power, database storage, content delivery and various other functionalities.
Read MoreWhat is IBM Cloud?
IBM Cloud™ is a robust suite of advanced data and AI tools, and deep industry expertise to help you on your journey to the cloud. There are more than 100 products available from IBM Cloud, across 16 categories.
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What is Power BI?
Power BI helps teams implement business intelligence with ease. It is relatively simple to start building dashboards of interactive visualisations from a range of data sources, so you can start to see actionable insights very quickly.
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What is the Internet of Things?
The internet of things is everywhere, and the best way to start explaining it is to have a look around you. If you have a wireless printer, a thermostat, or a virtual voice assistant, you have IoT devices within your home, and you can probably control them all from your tablet, phone or assistant, as they are all connected to the internet.
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What is AI?
Artificial intelligence is a technology that can ‘think’ in a human-like way. It is a diverse area of computer science that enlists tools such as machine learning and image processing to recreate and build upon the complex capabilities of the human brain.
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What is Amazon S3?
Amazon S3 is described by Amazon as “object storage built to store and retrieve any amount of data from anywhere”. Similar to Google Drive in that it can store many different data types, Amazon S3 makes it easy to meet the data needs of large and complex web applications - including Netflix, Airbnb, and Amazon itself.
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What is AWS Redshift?
Amazon Redshift is a cloud-based data warehousing solution that allows you to store, transform and query vast volumes of data at high speed.
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What is data science strategy?
Data science strategy refers to a company’s vision for how data will be used to help achieve the company’s business goals, how to build a thriving data culture, and how to address the skills and knowledge required to execute this vision.
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What is data strategy?
Data strategy refers to a company’s vision for how data will be used to help achieve the company’s business goals. This enables companies to analyse progress and make better business decisions, but it also helps to create a thriving data environment where it can be easily shared and accessed, safely stored and standardised, and viewed as a central resource to all departments.
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What is AI strategy?
AI strategy refers to a company’s vision for how AI will be deployed to help achieve the company’s business goals. It should be closely linked to your data strategy and hence to your business objectives.
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What is data science consulting?
Data science consulting is a service that will help your organisation develop a data science strategy and implement data science solutions. You may need a consultant to help you start integrating data science into your business strategy, or to help keep your projects on track.
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What is data science auditing?
Data science auditing is a review of your data science solutions to assess their quality, security and compliance. This helps businesses produce good quality data science solutions.
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What is data platform development?
A data platform is a service that includes data collection, storage and analysis. Developing a data platform creates a central service that encompasses a data warehouse, business intelligence tools, and a suite of data science and analytical environments.
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What is data platform auditing?
Data platform auditing reviews your data platform against fitness for purpose measures such as security, compliance and structure. This helps businesses ensure compliance and protect assets and data, by reviewing and improving the security of your data platform.
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What is data platform security auditing?
Data platform security auditing reviews the security of your data platform and provides recommendations for improvements. This helps businesses ensure compliance and protect customer data.
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What is data science development?
Data science development is the development of custom data science solutions (algorithms, models) from the data source to the deployment of the models.
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What is data science?
Data science applies scientific methods to data to reveal insights and predictions that can help you to meet your business goals. This helps businesses build better products and make better decisions.
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What are long-range, low-power sensor networks?
Long-range, low-power sensor networks are a type of wireless technology. They are systems of connected sensors that work over a large area using little power. This means that they have the benefits of wide-area mobile networks at a lower cost.
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What is developing a centre of excellence?
Developing a centre of excellence promotes collaboration in your business and defines best practice for your specific focus area - whether it be AI, data science, analytics or business intelligence - to drive progress towards your strategic goals.
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What is business intelligence?
Business intelligence refers to the systematic collection, integration, analysis and reporting of data from all areas of your business - from finance and sales to worker productivity - to drive better decision making.
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What is data warehousing?
Data warehousing refers to building a system that can store large volumes of data from several sources, as a central repository from which all other systems can access the data efficiently.
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What is remote support?
Remote support tools are IT tools and software that enable an IT technician or a support representative to connect to a remote computer from their consoles via the Internet and work directly on the remote system.
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What are database improvements?
Database improvements can mean improving the design of the database, improving the performance of the database, and improving the security of the database.
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What is database maintenance?
Database maintenance plans are a method of ensuring that a database is optimised and performing well. This helps businesses reduce downtime and data loss and ensure accurate and reliable data is available for modelling and insights.
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What is data visualisation?
Data visualization is the graphic representation of data. It involves producing images that communicate relationships among the represented data to viewers of the images. Data visualisation empowers all of the teams in your organisation to make data-driven decisions and act on insights from your data.
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What is AI product development?
AI product development is the development of an AI solution - either from scratch or building upon an AI solution that is used internally - that can be made available externally as a marketable product.
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What is AI integration into applications?
AI systems such as natural language processing and machine learning algorithms can be integrated into existing applications to add functionality and improve their performance over time. Examples of AI features that can be integrated into applications are facial recognition image processing, speech processing and personalised content.
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What is Azure Batch?
Azure Batch is a service that manages the workload of applications. It is designed to take the workload that is greater than the capability of your application, and divide it between a number of nodes - virtual machines (VMs) - that can each run your application and perform different parts of the workload in parallel.
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What is Azure Data Factory?
Azure Data Factory is a cloud-based data integration service. It does not store data itself, but allows you to create and monitor automated workflows that collect, integrate, and (to some extent) transform large volumes of data from disparate sources, and pass them on to other services that can store, transform, analyse and use the data.
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What is data collection?
Data collection is the process of gathering and measuring information on targeted variables in an established system. Data collection helps businesses evaluate and improve internal operations, evaluate performance, solve business problems, better understand customers and how to serve them, and make better decisions.
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What is data modeling?
Data modeling is the process of structuring and organising data as a map that clearly visualises data sources, transfers and relationships. Data modeling helps businesses build products that use data efficiently and meet business goals, empower teams to make data-driven decisions efficiently and manage large volumes of data.
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Low ROI from AI is a people problem, not a tech problem
The top blockers to effective AI use in businesses aren't technical issues. They're people problems.
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How to use Azure Cognitive Services to make voiceovers for your videos
In this post, we take you through how to use Microsoft's Cognitive Services to generate voiceovers for your videos. In practice, this technique for generating speech from text can be used in a wide range tasks but one of the ways we're using it at Nightingale HQ is to support our marketing team.
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AI Winters and hype
This is not the first time AI has been all the rage in the business world. In particular, AI was big in the eighties with solutions called expert systems. Will AI be a passing fad now?
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How IoT technology can be used to improve UK public transport
There is no shortage of possible applications when it comes to Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the public sector, but while the UK government is investing heavily in AI in the private sector, what are they actually doing to implement it themselves? Some fear that governments using AI will result in a dystopian future of constant surveillance, but in reality, public sector applications of AI are far more pragmatic.
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DataOps for everyone at #DataOpticon
If there’s one thing that our CEO Steph Locke is passionate about, it’s data. Getting businesses’ data AI-ready, sharing knowledge around data skills and processes, and generally empowering people through data. Back in September 2019, Steph hosted the first ever DataOpticon in London, with a simple goal: to help people who work with data do it better.
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Sealing the gap in education poverty with AI & EdTech
Could education be the industry that has seen the least change over the years? While we’ve seen big changes in the accessibility of education, there is still a long way to go, and as pointed out by The World Bank, being in school is not the same as learning. Often pupils are unengaged, teachers are failing to hold everyone’s attention in class, and drop out rates and grades are proving that the one-size-fits-all approach to learning is outdated.
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The AI Hierarchy of Needs meets the Minimum Viable Product
Two of my favourite pyramids are the Data Science Hierarchy of Needs and the Minimum Viable Product. Combining them helps us build effective artificial intelligence (AI) proof of concepts in businesses. It also supports building AI competency at the same time as demonstrating Return on Investment (ROI).
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How to score your first AI quick wins: Intelligent Insights
There’s no doubt that going ahead with Artificial Intelligence (AI) can be risky. We’ve seen numerous AI fails from major companies including IBM, Amazon and Microsoft which landed them in hot water, something big companies can often bounce back from, but could be more of a problem for the smaller players. The trick to getting started with AI is to start small, which is where our quick win AI projects come into play.
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Mastering AI in manufacturing: the three levels of competency
Manufacturers have been facing continual pressure to improve their technology base, reduce costs, and improve quality since the Industrial Revolution. Manufacturers are used to change but not every manufacturer can or will embrace it at the same rate. Also, no manufacturer jumps straight to being an expert at the new thing they're needing to adopt. The same goes for Artificial Intelligence (AI) as an emerging change in manufacturing.
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Industry IoT, smart factories and AI in manufacturing
The world of manufacturing is on the brink of another revolution due to the Internet of Things (IoT) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) applications. Aside from clear use cases like robotics and automation, big data applications are coming into play, thanks to industrial time series data collected by data historians. Thriving on all this data, AI systems can be built to send early warnings, optimise processes, predict maintenance and enforce quality control. By collecting the right data, manufacturers can get really creative with their AI solutions, and it can set them apart from the competition.
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A partnership of Machine Learning and AI with healthcare professionals
Healthcare has always been a data-rich area, but with new technologies for processing and structuring, and new ways of collecting data, such as using sensors, like many other industries, the available data is growing exponentially. Artificial Intelligence (AI) makes it possible to analyse all this data in real-time by combing Machine Learning (ML) and Natural Language Processing (NLP), in order to gain valuable insights.
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Expert Perspectives: Enhancing business with data and AI
This week we spoke to Dr. Leila Etaati, co-founder, data scientist, consultant and mentor at RADACAD, about what she thought was the key to success with AI for businesses, and how her business was implementing these beliefs. The RADACAD team work with other companies to deliver expert training and consulting around all things data, with a passion for helping businesses improve by listening to their data.
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How to score your first AI quick wins: Social Listening
Marketing is a ripe area for Artificial Intelligence (AI) adoption, with all the data and the insights, but how do you make the jump into the AI pool when you look around and all you see is resistance? Quick win projects are an essential tool for building confidence among your team, particularly when introducing new concepts. That is why Nightingale HQ have created a guide of quick-win projects to help departments and companies ease into AI and build momentum for future, more complex projects. In this edition, we will discuss the benefits of practising social listening and how to pull it off as your first AI win.
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How to score your first AI quick wins: Knowledge Worker Productivity
When you choose to introduce Artificial Intelligence (AI) in your organisation or department there can be a lot of resistance and uncertainty, which is why it is important to start small and win fast. By taking on smaller fail-proof projects, you can build up confidence among your team as they begin to see the value of the projects and stop fearing failure and resisting changes. In this project we discuss how to boost knowledge worker productivity, something employees will be able to track themselves and see the true value of. Building momentum in this way will pave the way for greater successes down the line.
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Advanced AI techniques in retail that are making their jobs a breeze
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is already beginning to transform several industries, and it continues to divide opinions on whether it will transform our lives for good, for bad, or exaggerate existing divides by benefitting some and neglecting others. One of the areas where AI has been applied with extremely effective results is in retail, both online and off, and is a fine example of why AI can be simultaneously good and evil, highlighting the need for regulation.
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Take the hassle out of note-taking with Otter.ai
How much time is spent taking and distributing minutes in your organisation? How often are your staff impacted by miscommunications, forgotten action points and lost meeting notes? All of these losses can be avoided when you use an AI tool to automatically generate searchable transcriptions of your meetings.
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Announcing our Research Panel
We want to help more than one million businesses adopt artificial intelligence (AI) in the next five years. To do that we need your help. We're working on the world's biggest dataset on AI adoption via what we collect on our site, but qualitative data from knowledgeable people can be extremely valuable. As such we're launching our research panel to engage with people around the world.
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How to score your first AI quick wins: Sales AI
Making big changes in your organisation or department such as kick-starting Artificial Intelligence (AI) can be a risky move if things don’t go to plan. Getting your team on board from the start is key to longterm success, which is why it’s so important to have an easy way in, such as one of our quick win AI projects. Not only do quick wins provide immediate value for your company or department, but they help build momentum among your team and change attitudes toward your projects. In this edition, we will discuss how to infuse your sales process with AI for ultimate results.
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How to score your first AI quick wins: Accessible meetings
Artificial Intelligence (AI) can come across as a make or break move, perhaps a risky step, particularly if you don’t have disposable resources, which is why it is so important to start with some quick win projects in order to build confidence and momentum within the company. The sure success of a quick win project removes the pressure for following projects where there might be more at stake, but they also bring immediate value to your business.
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Why do you need business intelligence?
How quickly could you answer the question, "How's your business doing?" if it was asked right now? How detailed would your answer be, and how confident would you be in your answer? If you were utilising business intelligence, your answer would be fast, comprehensive and accurate.
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How to score your first AI quick wins: FAQ chatbots
AIFightsBack webinar Augmenting Customer Service with Chatbots 16 April at 15.00 is now over. Check out our video and slide here
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Removing AI bias for better decision making
It is difficult to deny that humans make biased decisions. Unconsciously we all make choices that are based on prejudices and flawed associations. This bias that we introduce to our business decisions can trickle through entire organisations, from recruitment to market segmentation. AI, with its lack of consciousness, human experience and gut feelings, has the potential to remove bias from businesses, and yet all too often AI is found to exhibit the same biases that we do.
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How AI in marketing is enhancing B2B sales
At the end of 2018, Salesforce reported that adoption of AI by marketers had grown by 44% last year, and that adoption rate is unlikely to slow anytime soon. With marketers showing "extensive interest" in exploiting AI for their roles, more and more tools are becoming available to support companies on their journey to smarter marketing. AI is transforming the way companies market their products and services to other businesses, streamlining processes at all levels of the sales funnel.
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What to watch for in the FinTech startup industry
If anyone has raced ahead with AI adoption, it’s the finance industry. The rise of AI goes hand in hand with the wave of FinTech services and applications that have surfaced in recent years. From automating the approval of loan applications and spotting fraud to personalised services and cryptocurrencies, these applications save time, reduce errors and ultimately save money. This makes them a lucrative investment for banks, who seem to be at the forefront of the AI revolution, showing other industries that making bold changes and engaging with these technologies is worthwhile.
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How can you attract the best AI talent from a limited pool?
According to research by MMC Ventures, demand for AI talent has doubled in 24 months, faster than the talent pool can keep up. As of 2019 there was one AI professional for every two available jobs, so building a team of AI developers for your organisation requires both focused recruitment and a sound retention strategy.
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Let your business strategy drive AI adoption
To reveal the tactics and behaviours of companies that are getting the most out of AI, MIT Sloan Management Review and Boston Consultancy Group undertook a survey of more than 2500 executives alongside 17 expert interviews in their 2019 report, Winning with AI. One of their findings was that while 9 out of 10 respondents saw AI as an opportunity for their company, the perceived risk of AI is on the rise, with 45% of respondents reporting perceived risk from AI (compared to 37% in 2017).
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Decoding the hype around AI
As the powers and capabilities of Artificial Intelligence (AI) expand and evolve, the same cannot be said for the general understanding of the topic. This has resulted in AI becoming a blanket term that gets misused and thrown around for all things, including things that it’s not. People also have very unrealistic expectations of what AI can do leading in some cases to fear and paranoia over things like potential world domination, in others, disillusion when the AI doesn’t perform to the high standards they were hoping.
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Can AI outperform medical professionals in diagnosis?
Last year the Guardian reported that AI is 'equal to humans in medical diagnoses' when interpreting images, referring to a study published in Lancet Digital Health. The study revealed that AI 'deep learning' systems were able to detect disease 87% of the time and correctly gave the all-clear in 93% of cases (the equivalent success rate in healthcare professionals is 86% and 93%). This means that AI in healthcare is on track to support medical professionals, leading to faster, cheaper diagnoses and drug development. This will allow healthcare professionals to achieve more with their time and help more people.
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7 tips for building a data culture that will strengthen your business
Data analytics has taken off but not everyone is on the same page. While some companies are already making waves with data science, others are still struggling with the basics. Curating a healthy data culture is ever more important now to prevent the gap from growing between those who are embracing analytics and those who are lagging behind.
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Project management: Are you backing the right AI projects?
As an executive with an influence over whether your company implements AI and which projects it embarks on, there’s a lot of pressure on you to be successful. The future of AI within your company could rest on you on how your chosen projects perform.
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Do you really need big data to start using data science?
All businesses generate data. Even the smallest business has access to hundreds, if not thousands, of interesting data points that they could explore. But it is not uncommon for business owners to think their data is small, inferior and not yet worth analysing. This is where they are wrong every time. Starting small is the best thing you can do, so we say, the time to start your first data science projects is now.
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How to get AI to work for your business and enhance operations
Enterprise cognitive computing is the application of AI to enhance business operations. It has a wide range of applications including call handling, fraud detection and maintenance scheduling. ECC systems automate repetitive tasks and improve efficiency through fast search and information processing.
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Florence Nightingale: Lighting the way in much more than healthcare
Many may think of Florence Nightingale as the incredible woman who reformed healthcare in ways that still impacts the industry today, but at Nightingale HQ we admire her for an additional reason.
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What is cloud data development?
Azure Data Factory is a cloud-based data integration service. It does not store data itself, but allows you to create and monitor automated workflows that collect, integrate, and (to some extent) transform large volumes of data from disparate sources, and pass them on to other services that can store, transform, analyse and use the data.
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