Millennial and Gen Z Survey 2021
We’ve had plenty of research and surveys of Millennials and now more understanding of Gen Z’s can help us understand the changing socio-economic environment. According to a Deloitte survey of over 8,000 Gen Zs, they seem to be the most vocal generation, likely to speak out against things like racism or sexism.
Also like investors and founders of an earlier era of the 1970’s, Gen Zs are willing to upset the status quo. They’re likely to change jobs frequently and don’t expect them to put away their phones while at work.
The Impact of AI in UK
The UK was the crucible of the Industrial Revolution and is one of the crucibles of the Intelligence Revolution. It is home to world-beating artificial intelligence (AI) companies and world-class academic centres of AI research. It is well placed to reap great overall economic benefits from the development of AI, but it is not yet clear how those benefits will be shared.
A number of high profile recent studies have predicted high levels of automation in the UK in the coming years as artificial intelligence and related technologies disrupt the economy. The Industrial Revolution drove automation of repetitive physical work; the Intelligence Revolution is having the same effect on a widening range of intellectual tasks, meaning that more and more jobs can potentially be performed by robots and computers.
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https://www.npr.org
Islamic Fintech Startups in UK
The Islamic Finance Industry holds much promise, with assets expected to reach $3.9 trillion by 2023 according to Thomson Reuters, however, Islamic Fintech is at the very beginning of an exciting, transformative journey for the industry, one still dominated by largely domestic and OIC-based financial institutions. A young, digitally native Muslim demographic that is on average younger than the worlds non-Muslim population, is driving the growth of Islamic Finance.
The large established financial institutions are embracing the change, with 74% of financial institutions investing in data analytics, 34% in Industrial Revolution – Wikipedia (AI), and with 77% expecting to adopt blockchain by 2020.
https://www.dinarstandard.com
UK Market-Based Finance
Ultra low rates, new regulations and the need to invest in updating their businesses mean many UK and global banks are struggling to make their cost of capital. This will drive changes to firms’ business models as they look to improve efficiency, resilience and customer experience. Technology is enabling unbundling of activities which historically were done under one roof.
While a more distributed model has many advantages, it is a far more complex system to oversee. For instance, many players which have historically not been regulated or held to the same standards are becoming active in core financial services processes. The Bank, and others, will wish to ward against this to realise the benefits.
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Source: Synergy Research Group
The Immersive Economy in UK
Although immersive mass market products such as consumer headsets are perhaps most visible, business-tobusiness applications of immersive are also significant. We asked survey respondents what sectors they operated in.
Almost two-thirds also identified other ‘non-creative’ sectors. Training, education, health and tourism are mentioned most often. A small poll of large organisations in Immerse UK’s network highlighted significant revenues and expenditures on immersive. This included large automotive businesses spending millions of pounds on immersive technology research and development in recent years, and companies working in construction and manufacturing already generating millions in turnover from these technologies.
Major Players In Fintech Ecosystem
Expansion, disruption and competition are the defining themes of our respondents’ outlook for 2019. The race is most definitely on. “It will be the year when more digital banks and platforms come of age, driving more competition between traditional high street banks and amongst themselves,” said one leading fintech. “Big banks will start stepping up and competing with the challengers,” said one investor.
As there had been “a concentration of investment” into challenger banks and alternative lending and financing platforms in 2018, noted one investor, the disruption of traditional financial services sectors would continue and would be driven in 2019 by factors such as open banking and the growth of the regtech and insurtech segments.
Financial Services Startup Bootcamp
The FinTech sector is not immune to changes in broader market sentiment or geo-politics – and 2016 was a year of unusual volatility. Eurozone anxiety is set to continue with elections in many countries looming large in 2017.
In fact, investment in FinTech globally held up remarkably well during 2016. Innovate Finance data suggests there was $17.4bn worth of VC investment worldwide over the course of the year, a 10.9% increase compared to 2015. However, in the UK there was a different story to tell, as deal value drastically decreased by 33.7% to a total of $783m.
Cryptoassets And Financial Services
Financial services regulation in the UK is broadly carried out by the FCA and the Bank of England (including through the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA)). The FCA’s regulation aims to protect consumers from harm, protect and enhance the integrity of the UK’s financial services sector, and promote effective competition in the interest of consumers. The Bank of England’s regulation aims to ensure the safety and soundness of firms (through the PRA) and to remove or reduce systemic risks that could pose a threat to financial stability (through the Financial Policy Committee and the Bank’s supervision of Financial Market Infrastructures).
The government has set out an ambition for the UK to be the world’s most innovative economy, and to maintain its position as one of the leading financial centres globally. The UK is well placed to achieve this, as host to a very mature and diverse domestic financial sector. This is a function of, but also relies on, the UK maintaining its international reputation as a safe and transparent place to do business in financial services; ensuring high regulatory standards in financial markets; protecting consumers; and allowing innovators in the financial sector that play by the rules to thrive, so that the benefits of new technologies can be fully realised.
How UK Win AI Race?
A revolution in AI technology is occurring. AI will define this century. This presents a huge opportunity for the UK and if we act now, we can lead from the front. That is why we identified AI and data as one of the UK’s four Grand Challenges in the Industrial Strategy and why we are mobilising all of government to seize this opportunity to make the UK a global leader in this technology that will change all of our lives.
The government and UK business must take action to keep the UK at the frontier of AI advancement. The UK is an AI academic powerhouse, publishing nearly 25,000 research papers on the topic in the past ten years. This puts the UK fourth in the world when it comes to AI research. Our experts give their take on the opportunities we can grasp as a nation, and the hurdles we need to clear to keep Britain in contention.
The Fight For Fintech
Fintech is a phenomenon. Just as with other sectors, the tentacles of technology have coiled their way into the financial services industry and traditional firms are feeling the squeeze. Dealmaking in the sector shows no sign of letting up. Research from the consultancy firm KPMG suggests global fintech M&A during 2017 was up sharply compared with 2016, itself a record year. In total, there were 336 such transactions last year worth a total of $18bn – that compares to 236 transactions worth $11.15bn over the previous 12 months.
Financial institutions have substantial firepower at their disposal as they survey forthcoming M&A opportunities. Almost a third of these organisations (31%) plan to allocate $500m or more to fintech investment over the next 24 months, more than double the number that allocated such large sums over the past two years. A further third say they are likely to allocate between $200m and $500m.
