Must Reads

Cover Story: Opaque AI, Can We Manage the Risk?
In 2004 NASA scientists and engineers embarked on a two-year journey to develop artificial intelligence software that could design a satellite antenna. They came up with an algorithm modelled on Darwinian evolution which takes specific design parameters such as size and frequency bands and generates random antenna designs. These are

Who is doing digital transformation well? Let’s start with L’Oreal
While much of the focus on the impact of digital stays fixed on insurgent new businesses, it is just as interesting – and often more useful to ask – which traditional companies are doing digital transformation well? L’Oreal and Starbucks are two immediate candidates. Both these powerhouse brands have been

AI will Be in Almost Every New Software Product by 2020, Says Gartner
Artificial Intelligence (AI) will become a feature of almost every new software product and service by 2020, according to forecasts from Gartner. Gartner’s analysts also predict that by 2020, AI will be a top five investment priority for more than 30 per cent of CIOs. But in the rush to

Cover Story: The quiet catastrophe, then reinvention of book publishing
My first year as a working writer I made a hundred and thirty-five dollars and ate a lot of generic poverty noodles. My second, a bumper year, I broke two hundred. It was encouraging, but not enough to upgrade to those fancy Maggi noodles the big, prize-winning authors get. After

Video: Will we buy and sell Audiences on the Stock Exchange?
Marketing technology (martech) and advertising technology (ad tech) will increasingly resemble fintech. In turn that will lead to a world where marketers can buy and sell audiences on the stock exchange, in just the same way that investors trade frozen oranges and pork bellies according to Tim Whitfield, director, technical

Editorial: A product is worth what someone will pay for it
Market disruption tends to bring out the rent seekers. This month it’s the media companies that have decided the answer to their salvation lies in government regulation. They would be better served making products that people will pay for. As we reported previously, two separate entreaties on opposite ends of

Transformation – moving beyond the rhetoric
Companies are slowly beginning to realise the existential nature of the challenge that digital hypercompetition poses to them. When they see the destruction wrought by disruptors on incumbents in music (Spotify), media (Google) or retail (Amazon), it’s difficult to deny that the writing on the wall is for them. Executives

Video: What Madtech Means for Attribution
Neither ad tech nor martech is flawless when it comes to attribution. At a recent roundtable discussion hosted by Which-50, industry experts discussed the possibility of alleviating these flaws through the combination of both disciplines. Download the Convergence of AdTech and Martech An incorporation of martech potentially advances ad tech’s

Podcast: Design Thinking for Customer Experience
Design thinking is a viable strategy for organisations tasked with delivering customer experiences, according to guests on the latest Which-50 podcast. Originating in architecture in the 1960’s, design thinking has recently been applied to business strategy with intriguing results. Sign up for Which-50’s Irregular Insights newsletter In the fourth Which-50

The Long Game — what to expect as the “Passenger Economy” emerges
As society shifts to a world of autonomous driving over the next 30 years, the economic implications are profound — initially, but not only for the automotive sector. Some of the world’s leading automotive brands are already investing heavily in the technology. Daimler for instance says that prototypes like its