Figure, a developer of autonomous humanoid robots, has signed a major deal with BMW to bring its robots to the car maker’s US factory.

Under the commercial pact, Figure announced on Thursday it will initially identify potential applications for its robots on the German multinational’s auto assembly lines. Then will follow a gradual deployment phase where it’s hoped the robots will take over dangerous, tedious, and repetitive tasks from human workers at the Spartanburg, South Carolina plant.

The Californian artificial intelligence (AI) company has been developing autonomous general-purpose humanoid robots since 2022 and picked up $70 million in Series A funding last year. The goal of this new partnership is to increase productivity and safety by enabling BMW employees to focus on higher-value assignments that require human skills and oversight, according to the companies.

“The potential of general purpose robotics is completely untapped,” said Brett Adcock, Figure’s CEO. “Our robots will enable companies like BMW to increase productivity, reduce costs and create a safer and more consistent environment.”

In addition to deploying robots, BMW and Figure will collaborate on exploring advanced technologies like artificial intelligence, virtual manufacturing and robot integration.

“The automotive industry is evolving rapidly and BMW aims to be an innovator,” said Dr. Robert Engelhorn, BMW Manufacturing’s President and CEO. “The use of robotics solutions has the potential to drive greater efficiency and support the transformation ahead.”

Excited to announce that Figure has signed a commercial agreement with BMW

We will deploy our general purpose robots into automotive manufacturing environments.

More below: pic.twitter.com/LPisMeZZbi

— Figure (@Figure_robot) January 18, 2024

What does Figure’s deal with BMW mean for jobs?

It all sounds great on paper but what does this mean for human jobs? BMW’s massive plant in Spartanburg employs 11,000 people and generates around $27 billion for the state each year.

Figure says their humanoid robot is designed to address “jobs that are undesirable or unsafe, and to support supply chain and manufacturing on a global scale.” The robots may be used to supplement the work of existing workers or to take on entirely new production methods.

It’s not yet clear how the implementation will affect workers.

Earlier this month Readwrite reported Figure’s significant progress in achieving its mission to “expand human capabilities through advanced AI” by demonstrating how its artificial intelligence (AI) performs simple human tasks like making a coffee.

Robotic workers utilized on a large scale are still a while off. This is very much the early stage of this technology, but the partnership with BMW is a significant step and one to pay attention to.

BMW was approached for comment.

Featured Image: Figure AI

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Despite being dead for 15 years, comedian George Carlin defied expectations by dropping a new comedy special this week. Except it wasn’t George Carlin, it was Dudesy the comedy artificial intelligence (AI).

Kelly Carlin, George’s daughter, took to X to express her unease at this development. She also stated that Dudesy and its creators Will Sasso and Chad Kultgen had not received permission before creating the video.

ZERO PERMISSION GRANTED. https://t.co/BAm62WrWSU

— Kelly Carlin (@kelly_carlin) January 11, 2024

“My statement regarding the AI-generated George Carlin special: My dad spent a lifetime perfecting his craft from his very human life, brain, and imagination.  No machine will ever replace his genius. These AI-generated products are clever attempts at trying to recreate a mind that will never exist again. Let’s let the artist’s work speak for itself. Humans are so afraid of the void that we can’t let what has fallen into it stay there.” She said in a thread on the social media platform, continuing, “Here’s an idea, how about we give some actual living human comedians a listen to? But if you want to listen to the genuine George Carlin, he has 14 specials that you can find anywhere.”

In the video description on YouTube, ‘Dudesy’ said, “I tried to capture his iconic style to tackle the topics I think the comedy legend would be talking about today. The chaos of the current American political landscape and class system, the influence of reality TV, and the increasing role of technology in society as AI is poised to change humanity forever are just a few of the subjects I cover.” The AI tried to liken the special to Elvis impersonators or other comedy impressionists in the video.

Is there legal recourse for AI impersonation?

Some X users have noticed that critical comments on the YouTube video are being removed. “The people who made that grave-robbing AI George Carlin video are predictably deleting negative comments. I hope they get sued.” said one user.

On the subject of legal action, Kelly Carlin has expressed that she is researching her options and consulting with lawyers, but there is a lack of clarity on the legalities of this issue. Earlier this year, Dudesy and its creators were subject to legal threats from Tom Brady, the NFL player, who was the subject of a prior AI-generated fake by the team. The creators addressed this in their podcast.

Lawmakers are only just beginning to grapple with how AI and deepfakes might affect the next election and there is currently little recourse in situations like this. It is vital that legislators catch up with AI developments.

Featured Image: Dudesy

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Tesla is recalling the vast majority of the two million vehicles it has sold in the US to urgently fix a malfunctioning system designed to ensure drivers remain alert when using Autopilot.

The action follows a two-year investigation by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) into crashes involving the Autopilot system, some of which were fatal, reports CNBC. NHTSA’s investigation revealed shortcomings in Autopilot’s method of ensuring driver attention, leading to foreseeable misuse.

Documents posted by U.S. safety regulators on Wednesday (Dec.13) said the company will send out a software update to fix the problems.

Autopilot is an advanced driver assistance system the electric car maker claims enhances safety and convenience behind the wheel. When used properly, Tesla says Autopilot reduces the overall workload of a driver and makes driving safer.  All vehicles built for the North American market now use camera-based ‘Tesla Vision’ to deliver Autopilot features, rather than radar.

Which Tesla models have been recalled?

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The future of self-driving truck company TuSimple in the US looks limited, as it announced it will be reducing its workforce to about 30 people while it searches for a potential buyer.

The decline of TuSimple in the US saw the San Diego-based company go from market leader in autonomous long-haul trucking to searching for a new buyer – after safety concerns and government trepidation over dealing with a Chinese startup. These safety concerns around self-driving vehicles have been echoed this week as well, via a Tesla whistleblower.

TuSimple is now moving its business to China. According to a company statement on Monday, it has reduced its US staff by 75% – cutting its global workforce to half of what it was in 2022. It also informed investors that it expects to generate no significant revenue. TuSimple is currently valued at $229 million, despite entering the US exchange with a $8.5 billion valuation.

TuSimple and US concerns over China ties

TuSimple and the US government got off to a rocky start before the company even went public, as a regulatory probe was launched into the company due to a Chinese investor who held two board seats and a large stake in the company.

As the US views autonomous driving technology as a key asset to national security and military operations, an agreement was struck between the Committee on Foreign Investment in the US (Cfius) and TuSimple to avoid sharing any critical data and technology with its China base.

The Wall Street Journal also reported, that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Cfius launched an investigation into TuSimple over illicit financing and transferred technology to a Chinese trucking startup.

The startup in question was Hydron – founded by TuSimple co-founder Mo Chen – who was seeking to build hydrogen-powered semi-trucks powered by TuSimple self-driving technology.

Featured image: Xuejc1988 at Chinese Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons

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As the conversation around the future of AI grows, the debate concerning AI governance is heating up. Some believe that companies using or procuring AI-powered tools should be allowed to self-regulate, while others feel that stricter legislation from the government is necessary.

The pressing need for some governance in the rapidly growing AI landscape is evident.

The Rise of AI: A New Generation of Innovation

There are numerous applications of AI, but one of the most innovative and well-known organizations in the field of artificial intelligence is OpenAI. OpenAI gained notoriety after its natural language processor (NLP), ChatGPT, went viral. Since then, several OpenAI technologies have become quite successful.

Many other companies have dedicated more time, research, and money to seek a similar success story. In 2023 alone, spending on AI is expected to reach $154 billion (rsm dotglobal), a 27% increase from the previous year. Since the release of ChatGPT, AI has gone from being on the periphery to something that nearly everyone in the world is aware of.

Its popularity can be attributed to a variety of factors, including its potential to improve \ the output of a company. Surveys show that when workers improve their digital skills and work collaboratively with AI tools, they can increase productivity, boost team performance, and enhance their problem-solving capabilities.

After seeing such positive publishing, many companies in various industries — from manufacturing and finance to healthcare and logistics — are using AI. With AI seemingly becoming the new norm overnight, many are concerned about rapid implementation leading to technology dependence, privacy issues, and other ethical concerns.

The Ethics of AI: Do We Need AI Regulations?

With OpenAI’s rapid success, there has been increased discourse from lawmakers, regulators, and the general public over safety and ethical implications. Some favor further ethical growth in AI production, while others believe that individuals and companies should be free to use AI as they please to allow for more significant innovations.

If left unchecked, many experts believe the following issues will arise.

• Bias and discrimination: Companies claim AI helps eliminate bias because robots can’t discriminate, but AI-powered systems are only as fair and unbiased as the information fed into them. AI tools will only amplify and perpetuate those biases if the data humans use when coding AI is already biased.

• Human agency: Many are they’ll build a dependence on AI, which may affect their privacy and power of choice regarding control over their lives.

• Data abuse: AI can help combat cybercrime in an increasingly digital world. AI has the power to analyze much larger quantities of data, which can enable these systems to recognize patterns that could indicate a potential threat. However, there is the concern that companies will also use AI to gather data that can be used to abuse and manipulate people and consumers. This leads to whether AI is making people more or less secure (forgerock dotcom).

• The spread of misinformation: Because AI is not human, it doesn’t understand right or wrong. As such, AI can inadvertently spread false and misleading information, which is particularly dangerous in today’s era of social media.

• Lack of transparency: Most AI systems operate like “black boxes.” This means no one is ever fully aware of how or why these tools arrive at certain decisions. This leads to a lack of transparency and concerns about accountability.

• Job loss: One of the biggest concerns within the workforce is job displacement. While AI can enhance what workers are capable of, many are concerned that employers will simply choose to replace their employees entirely, choosing profit over ethics.

• Mayhem: Overall, there is a general concern that if AI is not regulated, it will lead to mass mayhem, such as weaponized information, cybercrime, and autonomous weapons.

To combat these concerns, experts are pushing for more ethical solutions, such as making humanity’s interests a top priority over the interests of AI and its benefits. The key, many believe, is to prioritize humans when implementing AI technologies continually. AI should never seek to replace, manipulate, or control humans but rather to work collaboratively with them to enhance what is possible. And one of the best ways to do this is to find a balance between AI innovation and AI governance. T

AI Governance: Self-Regulation vs. Government Legislation

When it comes to developing policies about AI, the question is: Who exactly should regulate or control ethical risks of AI (lytics dotcom)?

Should it be the companies themselves and their stakeholders? Or should the government step in to create sweeping policies requiring everyone to abide by the same rules and regulations?

In addition to determining who should regulate, there are questions of what exactly should be regulated and how. These are the three main challenges of AI governance.

Who Should Regulate?

Some believe that the government doesn’t understand how to get AI oversight right. Based on the government’s previous attempts to regulate digital platforms, the rules they create are insufficiently agile to deal with the velocity of technological development, such as AI.

So, instead, some believe that we should allow companies using AI to act as pseudo-governments, making their own rules to govern AI. However, this self-regulatory approach has led to many well-known harms, such as data privacy issues, user manipulation, and spreading of hate, lies, and misinformation.

Despite ongoing debate, organizations and government leaders are already taking steps to regulate the use of AI. The E.U. Parliament, for example, has already taken an important step toward establishing comprehensive AI regulations. And in the U.S. Senate, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is leading in outlining a broad plan for regulating AI. The White House Office of Science and Technology has also already started creating the Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights.

As for self-regulation, four leading AI companies are already banning together to create a self-governing regulatory agency. Microsoft, Google, OpenAI, and Anthropic all recently announced the launch of the Frontier Model Forum to ensure companies are engaged in the safe and responsible use and development of AI systems.

What Should Be Regulated and How?

There is also the challenge of determining precisely what should be regulated — things like safety and transparency being some of the primary concerns. In response to this concern, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has established a baseline for safe AI practices in their Framework for AI Risk Management.

The federal government believes that the use of licenses can help how AI can be regulated. Licensing can work as a tool for regulatory oversight but can have its drawbacks, such as working as more of a “one size fits all” solution when AI and the effects of digital technology are not uniform.

The EU’s response to this is a more agile, risk-based AI regulatory framework that allows for a multi-layered approach that better addresses the varied use cases for AI. Based on an assessment of the level of risk, different expectations will be enforced.

Wrapping Up

Unfortunately, there isn’t really a solid answer yet for who should regulate and how. Numerous options and methods are still being explored. That said, the CEO of OpenAI, Sam Altman, has endorsed the idea of a federal agency dedicated explicitly to AI oversight. Microsoft and Meta have also previously endorsed the concept of a national AI regulator.

However, until a solid decision is reached, it is considered best practice for companies using AI to do so as responsibly as possible. All organizations are legally required to operate under a Duty of Care. If any company is found to violate this, legal ramifications could ensue.

It is clear that regulatory practices are a must — there is no exception. So, for now, it is up to companies to determine the best way to walk that tightrope between protecting the public’s interest and promoting investment and innovation.

Featured Image Credit: Markus Winkler; Pexels

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In the bustling streets of major U.S. cities, General Motors’ subsidiary Cruise has been deploying driverless vehicles, promising a future where self-driving cars could replace traditional human-operated transportation. However, according to a recent report by The Intercept, the technology underpinning these AVs is still error-prone, leading to a significant regulatory backlash due to safety concerns.

Regulatory roadblocks and safety hurdles

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s recent investigation into Cruise’s fleet, coupled with the California Department of Motor Vehicles’ suspension of the company’s driverless operations in San Francisco, has brought the debate over AV safety to the forefront. This regulatory scrutiny follows incidents involving Cruise’s AVs, including a collision with a pedestrian. Nonetheless, Cruise CEO Kyle Vogt maintains that their technology is inherently safer than human drivers. However, this stance has been met with skepticism.

Cruise has now paused its driverless rides in some cities, opting for human-supervised operations. This move underscores the tension between AV technology advancement and public safety.

The balancing act of innovation and safety

Cruise’s internal issues, like detecting hazards and recognizing children, cast doubt on AV readiness for public roads. Experts criticize Cruise for not proactively addressing these safety concerns. They point out a gap between Cruise’s public statements and internal findings.

Cruise aims to improve upon human safety standards. Yet, the company must overcome AV technology limitations. The debate over AVs’ role in future road safety continues, balancing autonomous technology’s benefits against the risks of imperfect systems.

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In communication technology, Communication Platform as a Service (CPaaS) has emerged as a pivotal tool, enabling businesses and individuals to engage seamlessly across various channels. However, as the world becomes increasingly interconnected and reliant on data-driven insights, the integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT) is poised to revolutionize CPaaS. In this comprehensive exploration, we will delve into the fascinating future of CPaaS, where AI and IoT converge to redefine how we communicate.

The Current State of CPaaS

To grasp the potential of the future of Communication Platform as a Service (CPaaS), it’s essential to comprehend its current state. CPaaS, at its core, empowers users to incorporate real-time communication features, such as voice, video, messaging, and chat, into their applications and services. It acts as a vital bridge between traditional communication networks and the demands of modern digital platforms.

CPaaS: A Transformative Force

CPaaS has made substantial strides in redefining communication. It seamlessly integrates various communication channels into a unified platform, offering businesses and individuals unprecedented flexibility and connectivity. This foundational technology has already revolutionized sectors such as customer service, telehealth, and remote collaboration. However, an in-depth examination of its current status reveals both its achievements and challenges.

Achievements of CPaaS

1. Real-Time Communication Integration

CPaaS has successfully blurred the lines between communication channels, providing users with versatile means of communication within a single platform. This versatility empowers businesses to engage with their customers and clients in the most convenient way possible.

2. Improve User Experiences

The ability to personalize communication experiences has been a notable achievement of CPaaS. Users can enjoy tailored interactions, timely responses, and efficient engagement with businesses and services thanks to the adaptability of CPaaS.

Limitations and Challenges

Despite its achievements, CPaaS faces several limitations and challenges that necessitate ongoing innovation and improvement:

1. Limited Personalization and User Engagement

While CPaaS has enhanced personalization to some extent, there is room for growth. The challenge lies in creating even more tailored and context-aware communication experiences, ensuring each interaction feels genuinely customized.

2. Security Concerns in an Increasingly Connected World

Security concerns have emerged as CPaaS becomes more intertwined with our daily lives and businesses. Ensuring the privacy and integrity of data in an interconnected world is an ongoing challenge that requires advanced security measures and vigilance against potential threats.

3. The Need for More Efficient and Data-Driven Communication

Efficiency is the lifeblood of modern communication, and CPaaS must continue to evolve to meet this demand. Businesses require data-driven insights that enable them to optimize their communication strategies, ensuring that each interaction is productive and meaningful.

Understanding AI in CPaaS

To fully comprehend the transformative potential of AI and IoT in CPaaS, it’s crucial to explore the pivotal role of Artificial Intelligence in enhancing CPaaS capabilities. AI encompasses a spectrum of technologies, from machine learning and natural language processing to computer vision and predictive analytics. In the context of CPaaS, AI serves several critical functions, each contributing to a richer and more efficient communication experience:

The Role of AI in CPaaS

1. Chatbots and Virtual Assistants

AI-powered chatbots and virtual assistants are at the forefront of enhancing user interactions within CPaaS platforms. These intelligent entities are revolutionizing customer support, engagement, and user experiences in numerous ways:

• Instant Responses: AI chatbots provide swift responses, ensuring users’ inquiries are addressed promptly, regardless of the time of day.
• 24/7 Support: With AI-driven virtual assistants, businesses can offer round-the-clock support, meeting the demands of a global and always-connected audience.
• Personalized Recommendations: AI-powered chatbots analyze user data to deliver tailored recommendations and content, enhancing engagement and satisfaction.
  AI chatbots and virtual assistants are becoming increasingly sophisticated, with the ability to handle complex conversations, simulate human-like interactions, and even provide emotional intelligence in responses.

2.  Natural Language Processing (NLP)

Natural Language Processing is a cornerstone of AI’s impact on CPaaS. It enables CPaaS platforms to understand and interpret human language, making communication more intuitive, efficient, and context-aware:

• Contextual Understanding: NLP algorithms analyze user messages to grasp the context, enabling more coherent and relevant responses.
• Multilingual Support: NLP facilitates communication in multiple languages, breaking down linguistic barriers and broadening the reach of CPaaS platforms.
• Sentiment Analysis: AI-powered NLP can discern user sentiment analysis, allowing businesses to gauge customer satisfaction and respond proactively to concerns.

The integration of NLP into CPaaS not only improves the quality of user interactions but also enables the automation of routine tasks. For instance, CPaaS platforms can use NLP to automatically categorize and prioritize incoming messages, ensuring that urgent queries are addressed promptly while less critical ones are handled efficiently.

3. Predictive Analytics

AI-driven predictive analytics are a game-changer in CPaaS, harnessing vast datasets to anticipate user behavior, preferences, and communication patterns. This predictive power empowers CPaaS platforms to engage users more proactively and meaningfully:

• Anticipating User Needs: Predictive analytics analyze historical data to forecast user needs, enabling CPaaS platforms to offer relevant services and information in advance.
• Proactive Engagement: AI-driven predictive models identify trends and opportunities, allowing businesses to initiate communication or offer assistance before users even realize they need it.
• Customized Content Delivery: By understanding user preferences, predictive analytics ensure that content and messages are delivered at the most opportune moments, maximizing their impact.

The power of predictive analytics in CPaaS extends beyond user engagement. It also aids businesses in making data-driven decisions, optimizing their communication strategies, and achieving greater operational efficiency. These analytics can provide insights into communication patterns, such as peak usage times or preferred channels, enabling businesses to allocate resources effectively.

4. Advanced AI Features

Beyond the fundamental roles of chatbots, NLP, and predictive analytics, AI’s presence in CPaaS extends to advanced features:

• Image Analysis: AI can analyze images shared within communication channels, recognizing objects, scenes, and even sentiment in visual content.
• Real-Time Translation: AI-powered translation services break down language barriers, facilitating global communication in real-time.
• Voice Recognition: Voice recognition technology enables voice commands and transcription services, making voice interactions with CPaaS platforms seamless.
• Content Recommendations: AI algorithms recommend relevant content and products based on user behavior, enhancing cross-channel marketing efforts.

As AI continues to evolve and become more deeply integrated into CPaaS platforms, the potential for innovation and improvement in communication experiences is boundless. AI’s capacity to adapt and learn from user interactions promises to create increasingly sophisticated and valuable interactions.

The Internet of Things (IoT) in CPaaS

The IoT is not merely a technological advancement; it’s a transformative force that extends connectivity beyond traditional devices to everyday objects, machines, and sensors. The integration of IoT into Communication Platform as a Service introduces a paradigm shift in communication, ushering in a new era of possibilities and context-aware interactions. Let’s explore the profound impact of IoT on CPaaS in greater detail:

IoT and CPaaS: A Seamless Integration

The marriage of IoT and CPaaS represents a symbiotic relationship that offers immense value to businesses and users alike. It’s about turning data from the physical world into actionable insights and meaningful communication:

1. Real-time Data Exchange

One of the hallmark features of IoT is its ability to generate a continuous stream of real-time data. This data is the lifeblood of IoT applications, enabling devices and sensors to provide up-to-the-moment information. When integrated with CPaaS, this real-time data exchange takes communication to a new level:

• Instant Insights: IoT devices continuously collect data on everything from temperature and humidity to machine performance and customer behavior. When this data is seamlessly integrated with CPaaS, businesses gain instant insights that can drive timely actions and decisions.
• Faster Response Times: With IoT in the CPaaS ecosystem, businesses can react rapidly to changing conditions. For example, in logistics, real-time tracking of shipments via IoT sensors allows for proactive route adjustments and delivery optimizations.
• Optimized Operations: Industries like manufacturing benefit from IoT-CPaaS integration by monitoring equipment health. When a machine reports an anomaly, the CPaaS system can instantly alert maintenance personnel, reducing downtime and improving efficiency.

“IoT and CPaaS integration is the future of customer engagement. It allows businesses to connect with customers in ways we couldn’t have imagined before, providing real-time, context-aware interactions that drive value.” – John Smith, CEO of TechConnect Inc.”

2. Enhanced Contextual Communication

IoT enriches communication with contextual information, making messages and alerts more relevant and timely. This context-aware communication is pivotal in providing users with valuable, personalized experiences:

• Location-based Services: IoT sensors can determine a user’s location, enabling CPaaS to provide location-specific information or offers. For example, a retail app integrated with IoT can send discounts when a customer is near a store.
• Environmental Data: IoT can provide information about environmental conditions. For instance, a weather sensor integrated with CPaaS can trigger alerts and recommendations for businesses affected by adverse weather conditions.
• Healthcare Monitoring: In healthcare, wearable IoT devices can continuously monitor vital signs. CPaaS can notify healthcare providers when anomalies are detected, enabling prompt interventions.

IoT-enabled contextual communication is a powerful tool for businesses seeking to engage users more meaningfully and personally. It not only enhances user experiences but also drives customer loyalty and satisfaction.

Synergy Between AI and IoT in CPaaS

The true magic of the future of CPaaS lies in the seamless synergy between AI and the IoT. These transformative technologies complement each other and amplify their capabilities, opening up new possibilities and redefining the communication landscape. Let’s delve deeper into the captivating synergy between AI and IoT in CPaaS:

1. Intelligent Data Processing

One of the most profound impacts of this synergy is the ability to harness and make sense of the vast data streams generated by IoT devices. AI-driven analytics acts as the bridge between the raw data collected by IoT sensors and actionable insights:

• Data Transformation: AI algorithms can process and transform raw IoT data into meaningful information. For instance, in a smart city context, IoT sensors measuring air quality and traffic flow can provide real-time data that AI algorithms interpret to optimize traffic signals and improve air quality.
• Anomaly Detection: AI’s analytical prowess shines when it comes to identifying anomalies in IoT data. This can be crucial in sectors like industrial IoT, where the early detection of equipment malfunctions can prevent costly breakdowns.
• Data Fusion: AI can integrate data from various IoT sources, creating a comprehensive situation view. For example, in agriculture, IoT devices measuring soil moisture, weather conditions, and crop health can be combined by AI to provide precise irrigation recommendations.

“AI and IoT are not just technologies but catalysts for innovation. Together in CPaaS, they enable businesses to create highly personalized and efficient communication experiences that drive loyalty and revenue.” – John Smith, CEO of InnovateX

2. Predictive Communication

The synergy between AI and IoT enables predictive communication—a capability that anticipates and fulfills communication needs based on real-time IoT data:

• Proactive Notifications: AI can analyze IoT data to predict events or conditions that require user attention. For instance, if a connected vehicle’s diagnostics indicate an issue, AI can automatically schedule a service appointment and notify the owner.
• Automated Responses: In scenarios where immediate action is necessary, AI can trigger computerized responses. For example, if an IoT sensor detects a water leak in a smart home, AI can shut off the water supply and send an alert to the homeowner.
• Optimized Communication: AI can optimize the timing and channel of communication based on IoT data. For instance, if an e-commerce platform detects a user near a physical store via their IoT-connected smartphone, it can send a real-time offer to encourage an in-store visit.

Improved Customer Experiences

The convergence of Artificial Intelligence and the Internet of Things within CPaaS not only revolutionizes communication but also redefines customer experiences. This synergy empowers CPaaS to provide unparalleled levels of personalization, proactivity, and value to users:

1. Personalized Interactions

AI’s analytical capabilities delve deep into user behavior and preferences, enabling CPaaS to deliver tailored and personalized interactions:

• Behavior Analysis: AI algorithms meticulously analyze user behavior patterns, helping CPaaS platforms understand individual preferences and trends. This allows for delivering content and messages that resonate with users on a personal level.
• Recommendation Engines: AI-driven recommendation engines leverage historical data to suggest products, services, or content that align with users’ interests and past interactions. This not only enhances engagement but also drives conversions and customer loyalty.
• Contextual Conversations: AI in CPaaS fosters contextual understanding, ensuring each interaction feels relevant and meaningful. By interpreting user queries in context, AI-powered chatbots and virtual assistants provide more accurate and valuable responses.

3. Proactive Support

The fusion of IoT data and AI predictions equips CPaaS with the ability to offer proactive customer support, addressing issues before they escalate:

• IoT Data Insights: IoT sensors generate a wealth of real-time data. This data can be harnessed when integrated with AI to anticipate potential problems or opportunities. For instance, wearable IoT devices in healthcare can alert healthcare providers to deviations from normal health metrics, enabling early intervention.
• Predictive Maintenance: In industrial settings, IoT sensors on machinery can send data to AI algorithms. These algorithms predict when equipment will likely fail, allowing for preventive maintenance that minimizes downtime and reduces costs.
• Event-triggered Notifications: IoT-triggered events can prompt CPaaS to send automated notifications to users. For example, in in-home security, if an IoT sensor detects unauthorized entry, CPaaS can immediately alert the homeowner’s smartphone and contact the security service.

Security and Privacy Considerations

As the world of communication evolves and becomes increasingly data-centric, security and privacy concerns take center stage. Safeguarding user data and ensuring privacy is paramount in the realm of AI and IoT integration within Communication Platforms as a Service. Let’s explore the critical aspects of security and privacy in this transformative landscape:

1. Data Security

AI plays a pivotal role in bolstering security measures by actively monitoring and protecting against threats within the vast streams of data generated by IoT devices:

• Anomaly Detection: AI-driven anomaly detection systems continuously analyze IoT data streams for irregularities or suspicious activities. This proactive approach allows for the swift identification and mitigation of potential threats.
• Predictive Threat Intelligence: AI leverages historical data and machine learning algorithms to predict potential security threats. AI can fortify IoT networks against emerging risks by recognizing patterns indicative of cyberattacks.
• Behavior-Based Authentication: AI-based authentication systems evaluate user behavior to determine identity. This approach enhances security by identifying unusual behaviors, such as unauthorized access attempts, and prompting additional authentication measures.

“Security isn’t just about protecting data; it’s about protecting trust. Users need to trust that their data is safe and used responsibly in AI and IoT-driven CPaaS.” – David Miller, Chief Security Officer at CyberShield Inc.”

2. Privacy Protection

Striking a delicate balance between delivering highly personalized experiences and safeguarding user data privacy is essential. CPaaS platforms must implement robust privacy protection mechanisms:

• Data Encryption: Data encryption is fundamental in safeguarding sensitive information. IoT data transmitted via CPaaS should be encrypted to ensure confidentiality and protection against interception.
• User Consent Mechanisms: CPaaS platforms should provide clear and transparent user consent mechanisms. Users should have control over how their data is used and shared, with the option to opt in or out of specific services.
• Data Anonymization: AI can assist in anonymizing user data. By removing personally identifiable information from datasets, CPaaS platforms can harness the power of data while minimizing privacy risks.
• Privacy by Design: Privacy considerations should be integrated into the design and development of CPaaS systems from the outset. This approach ensures that privacy is not an afterthought but a foundational element of the platform.

Future Trends and Innovations

As we peer into the future of Communication Platform as a Service (CPaaS), it becomes evident that AI and IoT integration will continue to drive transformative trends and innovations. These technologies are poised to shape the CPaaS landscape in revolutionary and exciting ways. Let’s explore some of the emerging trends and innovations that await us:

AI-Powered Voice Assistants and Smart Devices

1. Voice-First Experiences

The rise of AI-powered voice assistants is set to redefine how users interact with CPaaS platforms:

• Voice Commands: Users will increasingly rely on voice commands to navigate CPaaS applications, send messages, initiate calls, and perform various tasks.
• Natural Language Understanding: AI-driven voice assistants will excel in natural language understanding, allowing for fluid and intuitive conversations.
• Multi-Modal Interaction: Voice interactions will seamlessly integrate with other modalities, such as text and visuals, creating multi-modal communication experiences.

“Voice will be the interface of the future. CPaaS providers must prepare for a voice-first world where users expect seamless voice interactions with their applications. – Maria Rodriguez, Voice UX Designer at VoiceTech Innovations”

2. Smart Devices Integration

CPaaS ecosystems will extend their reach into the realm of smart devices, enabling innovative use cases:

• IoT-Driven Automation: Smart devices in homes, offices, and industries will be integrated with CPaaS to enable automation and remote control via mobile apps and voice commands.
• Healthcare Monitoring: Wearable IoT devices will provide real-time health data to CPaaS platforms, allowing for continuous monitoring and proactive healthcare interventions.
  {In healthcare, the remote patient monitoring market, which heavily relies on IoT devices, is projected to reach $117.1 billion by 2027, as reported by Fortune Business Insights, highlighting the significant role of IoT in healthcare communication}
• Connected Vehicles: CPaaS will facilitate communication between connected vehicles, enabling features like traffic updates, remote diagnostics, and in-car entertainment.

3. The Ethical and Regulatory Landscape

As AI and IoT become increasingly integrated into CPaaS, ethical considerations and regulatory frameworks will evolve to ensure responsible and secure usage:

• Data Ethics: The responsible handling of user data, including consent, anonymization, and transparent data usage policies, will be a cornerstone of CPaaS ethics.
• AI Fairness: Efforts to eliminate biases in AI algorithms will gain prominence to ensure equitable and fair user experiences.
• Privacy Regulations: Compliance with data privacy regulations, such as GDPR and CCPA, will continue to be a top priority, with potential new regulations emerging.

4. Innovations Beyond Communication

CPaaS will extend its utility beyond traditional communication, paving the way for novel applications:

• Telehealth and Remote Medicine: CPaaS will facilitate telehealth services, connecting patients and healthcare providers seamlessly for remote consultations and monitoring.
• Smart Cities: IoT-driven CPaaS will play a pivotal role in smart city initiatives, enabling efficient traffic management, waste management, and public safety.
• Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR): CPaaS platforms will integrate AR and VR for immersive communication experiences, such as virtual meetings and remote collaboration.

“The future of CPaaS is a connected one, where AI-driven personalization, IoT-enabled automation, and innovative use cases converge to create a communication ecosystem that transcends traditional boundaries. It’s a future where users enjoy personalized, secure, and highly efficient communication experiences, all at their fingertips.”

Conclusion

In the future of CPaaS, it’s evident that AI and IoT integration will be a driving force behind transformative change. The synergy between these technologies will usher in hyper-personalized, secure, and context-aware communication. From healthcare to logistics and beyond, the possibilities are boundless. Now, The question is whether AI and IoT will redefine CPaaS but how swiftly this transformation will occur. As users and businesses alike prepare for this exciting future, one thing is certain: the way we communicate is on the verge of an extraordinary evolution.

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Since the onset of the pandemic, organizations across the world have drastically accelerated their digital transformation timetables to remain relevant and keep employees engaged amid changing market dynamics. However, many have failed to fully achieve the business outcomes enabled by successful digital transformation.

At a time when competition in every industry is stronger than ever, that’s a major missed opportunity.

The Reason Behind Transformation Failures

In order to reap the full benefits of digital transformation, it is important to align skills, operations, knowledge, and culture to leverage digitalized work habits and new technologies. Research shows that a lack of this alignment, or digital maturity, is one of the most critical factors in determining why so many organizations fail to meet their digital transformation goals.

The good news? Achieving digital maturity is well within reach for organizations that are willing to put in the work.

What Is Digital Maturity?

Digital maturity is the ability to adapt people, experiences, and businesses to new platforms and tools in order to maximize the value that is created through successful digital transformation. As your transformation ramps up, it’s vital to get a realistic temperature of the digital maturity within your organization so you can avoid common pitfalls.

The more mature your organization’s digital culture is, the more likely it is to succeed in full-scale transformation. Attaining digital maturity means your company can adjust to changes quickly, avoid costly technical delays, and see improved operations alongside heightened efficiency.

Putting People First — Always

So what’s the secret to attaining this optimal level of maturity? First and foremost, establishing a digitally mature culture requires a shift in mindset and the implementation of practical strategies. Organizations must prioritize people over technology and create an environment that enables both employees and the business to thrive.

The benefits of establishing a digitally mature culture include enhancing employee satisfaction and engagement, improving retention rates, and reducing attrition. A people-first approach also attracts top talent, particularly among younger generations who expect organizations to have digital maturity.

The Far-Reaching Effects of People-Centricity

By fostering an environment that values employees and leverages technology effectively, organizations become more attractive to prospective employees. And those that don’t prioritize this type of people-first approach? They will lose out on top talent.

Beyond the obvious employee satisfaction metrics, a people-centric culture promotes growth and encourages continuous learning, all while enabling employees to adapt to change more effectively. This agility drives innovation, productivity, and competitiveness in the digital landscape.

Evaluating the Characteristics of a Digitally Mature Culture

Let’s look at the ingredients that bring a successful digital transformation to life. It’s helpful to evaluate these four characteristics to see where your organization’s digital maturity stands:

Innovation: You should take into consideration how easy it is for your current employees to generate and implement creative ideas. It is critically important to foster a culture that truly encourages and rewards innovations. Make sure that you have the platforms and the resources needed for employees to contribute their ideas. And remember to “decriminalize” so-called failures. Great ideas require plenty of trial and error.

Flexibility: You will need to evaluate the flexibility of your organization and how well it adapts to change so you can determine if there is room for adjustments and if you have the ability to request additional time. It’s important to promote an environment that strives for successful digital transformation and an advanced digital culture — one that encourages employees to adapt to new processes and technologies.

Collaboration: Assess if you’ve created an atmosphere that is conducive to collaboration among all team members. Your organization should encourage open communication and knowledge sharing to keep everyone moving in the same direction. This extends to leadership as well; leaders should be transparent about the company’s digital transform strategy and be open to answering questions and considering new ideas from employees.

Continuous learning: Encouraging ongoing education and training in the digital transformation journey is crucial. Evaluate if you have the proper resources and processes in place to do so. You want your employees to regularly engage in various types of learning to ensure they have a clear understanding of the digital culture, processes, and technologies used within your organization. Fostering this type of culture also shows employees that you are invested in their growth, increasing satisfaction and the ability to attract new talent.

How Organizations Can Ensure Successful Digital Transformation

There are several strategies you can implement in order to make your digital transformation successful while prioritizing your people. The most effective strategies include the following:

1. Take a Bottom-Up Approach.

Your employees play an integral part when it comes to implementing a successful digital transformation. For this reason, it is in your best interest to implement a bottom-up approach and allow all employees to play an active role in the process right from the beginning. When everyone is onboard and rowing in the same direction, the destination becomes a lot easier to reach.

2. Recognize Your Current State of Digital Maturity.

It is important for you to assess how digitally mature your organization is. There’s no need to sugarcoat the findings. Be realistic. Determining the current maturity level among your employees can help you hone in on the organization’s acceptance and willingness to make the necessary changes. A great way to do this is to survey your employees: What do they want from your digital transformation? How are they engaging with new processes? Taking the pulse of the organization provides valuable feedback needed to make future adjustments.

3. Overcome Resistance to Change.

One of the biggest challenges to successful digital transformation is gaining buy-in from those who are wary of the transition. However, overcoming this resistance to change is key to ensuring you are able to make the transformation work. One of the best things that you can do to help overcome such resistance is to create a support system for staff and leadership. Create an environment of open communication where you can discuss how digital maturity can be viewed as an opportunity instead of a threat. Emphasize the end goal if necessary; the company’s vision is X, and improving digital maturity is the way to achieve that.

Make no mistake, implementing these strategies does take dedicated time and effort. But doing so can help to ensure your organization is prepared to prioritize and support employee engagement amid constant change. Following the above steps will do wonders for enhancing your digital maturity and, ultimately, make your digital transformation more successful. There’s no better time to act than now.

The post A Successful Digital Transformation Starts (and Ends) With People appeared first on ReadWrite.

Hackers from India, who call themselves the Indian Cyber Force, have threatened to target Canadian websites in response to claims that the Indian government played a role in killing a Canadian citizen promoting an independent Sikh state. The group shared a message on the X messaging platform, stating that cyberattacks in Canada would start within three days. A Canadian dental clinic’s webpage has already been vandalized with the message, “Hacked by Indian Cyber Force.”

Canadian authorities and cybersecurity experts are on high alert, closely monitoring and strengthening defenses to protect other potential targets from similar attacks. Meanwhile, the Indian government has not yet issued an official statement regarding the threats or their alleged involvement in the death of the Canadian citizen.

Royal Ransomware Gang Goes Unnoticed in Dallas for a Month

In related cyber security news, the Royal ransomware gang, which attacked Dallas, Texas, earlier this year, went unnoticed in the city’s IT infrastructure for nearly a month, stealing personal information of more than 30,000 people. The city has designated US$8.5 million to recover and restore systems affected by the attack. The gang initially accessed the IT system through a service account.

This incident highlights the importance of regularly monitoring and updating security measures within an organization’s IT infrastructure to prevent significant data breaches. Additionally, city officials are urging other municipalities to invest in updating their cyber security protocols to mitigate the risks of future ransomware attacks and protect sensitive data.

Hinds County Grapples with Ongoing Ransomware Attack

Mississippi’s Hinds County is still dealing with a ransomware attack this month, preventing residents from paying property taxes, finalizing real estate transactions, or buying car tags since September 7th. The county’s officials are working diligently with cybersecurity experts to address the issue and restore normal operations as soon as possible. In the meantime, residents are urged to remain patient and vigilant as the authorities explore alternative solutions to facilitate these essential services.

AlphV Ransomware Gang Hacks Vehicle Equipment Manufacturer Clairon

The AlphV ransomware gang has taken responsibility for hacking Clairon, a producer of audio, video, and navigation equipment for vehicles from major manufacturers. It has posted screenshots of stolen documents as evidence. The cybercriminal group claims to have accessed confidential data, including financial records, employee information, and sensitive business documents. Clairon is working in collaboration with cybersecurity experts and law enforcement agencies to mitigate the breach’s impact and prevent further unauthorized data access.

Progress Software’s MOVEit Vulnerability Impacts More Organizations

The number of organizations impacted by the vulnerability in Progress Software’s MOVEit file transfer software continues to increase, now involving the U.S. National Student Clearing House and Financial Institution Service Corporation, four months after the initial exposure. These organizations are joining the growing list of affected parties, highlighting the far-reaching effects of the vulnerability on various sectors in the economy. As more companies discover the impact of this exposure on their systems and data, it emphasizes the criticality of addressing software vulnerabilities in a timely manner to prevent potential large-scale breaches.

Kannact Inc. Addresses Data Breach Impacting Thousands

Kannact Inc., a healthcare support company based in Oregon, is notifying close to 118,000 individuals about a data breach resulting from hacking its file transfer software. The company announced the breach in June but is still working to determine an accurate number of victims. In addition to potentially compromised personal information, the breach may have exposed sensitive medical data of the affected individuals. As a response, Kannact has been proactively implementing further security measures and working closely with law enforcement agencies to investigate the incident and minimize any potential damage.

Nigerian Individual Faces Sentencing for Business Email Scam

Lastly, a Nigerian individual faces sentencing by a U.S. judge in November on conspiracy charges associated with participation in a business email scam. The deceptive email messages tricked victims into transferring money. Furthermore, these fraudulent emails often impersonate high-level executives, leading unsuspecting employees to believe they are transferring funds for legitimate company purposes. To combat this growing issue, companies are implementing stricter security measures and raising awareness among staff members about the risks of business email scams.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Indian Cyber Force?

The Indian Cyber Force is a group of hackers from India who have recently issued threats to target Canadian websites in response to claims that the Indian government played a role in killing a Canadian citizen promoting an independent Sikh state.

What are Canadian authorities doing to prevent cyber-attacks from the Indian Cyber Force?

Canadian authorities and cybersecurity experts are on high alert, closely monitoring and strengthening defenses to protect potential targets from similar attacks.

How did the Royal Ransomware Gang infiltrate Dallas’ IT infrastructure?

The gang initially accessed the IT system through a service account and went unnoticed for nearly a month while stealing personal information of more than 30,000 people.

What are Hinds County officials doing to address the ongoing ransomware attack?

The county’s officials are working diligently with cybersecurity experts to address the issue and restore normal operations as soon as possible. They are also exploring alternative solutions to facilitate essential services for residents.

What data did the AlphV ransomware gang allegedly steal from Clairon?

The cybercriminal group claims to have accessed confidential data, including financial records, employee information, and sensitive business documents from Clairon, a producer of audio, video, and navigation equipment for vehicles.

How has Kannact Inc. responded to the data breach impacting thousands?

Kannact has been proactively implementing further security measures and working closely with law enforcement agencies to investigate the incident and minimize any potential damage caused by hacking its file transfer software.

What measures are companies taking to combat business email scams?

To combat business email scams, companies are implementing stricter security measures and raising awareness among staff members about the risks of fraudulent emails that trick victims into transferring money for illegitimate purposes.

Featured Image Credit: Photo by Sora Shimazaki; Pexels; Thank you!

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Businesses need systems of record. Only when we have systems of record can we have systems of intelligence. And business leaders who develop systems of intelligence within their organizations will define the next frontier in their sector.

Let’s look at financial crime.

Systems of record at a bank or fund services firm can allow teams to learn about and then store info on a particular financial scam or scheme. When a bad actor attempts to repeat that scheme, the system of record recognizes it from its databank and can tell systems or people to shut down that bad actor.

But financial criminals know how banks and other institutions work. They are constantly changing their methods and schemes. It’s not enough for bankers or fund administrators to defend against the same types of crime. They must look for the same repeating patterns in their data. They need to defend against the crimes of the future. These crimes may look nothing like previous digital heists or fraudulent transactions.

The learning loop

This foresight requires a system of intelligence. AI tools should power it. These tools can run perpetual analyses on incoming data. They identify known dangers and flag suspicious “unknown unknowns.” These may indicate criminal activity. This kind of smart system helps bankers or other business leaders make breakthroughs. They do this based on the data that’s been collected. They provide foresight for what might come next using probabilities based on the system of record.

Systems of intelligence – a term coined by author Geoffrey Moore in 2017 – look deeper into transactional data to uncover the most well-hidden risks lurking within an organization. The feedback loop of finding new crimes then helps create new rules, keeping pace with the criminals while maintaining an expanding archive of their schemes.

More crime

It’s never been more important for financial firms to show they are serious about financial crime. The cost of financial crime compliance in the United States was predicted to hit almost $46 billion in 2022, up from more than $26 billion in 2019. Global financial crime costs banks north of $2 trillion annually.

Finance and investing firms need systems that are agile enough to confront the compliance challenges of tomorrow and take on the ever-expanding amount of work involved in financial crime and transaction monitoring. Only AI-powered solutions at this stage can deliver this level of efficiency and security.

As the Wall Street Journal’s Richard Vanderford reported, customers and regulations increasingly expect banks, funds, and others to deploy financial-crime-detecting AI systems. There’s no other way to scour billions of transactions while money launderers, human traffickers, drug dealers, and other criminals grow more sophisticated and tech-savvy daily. Vanderford cited AI proponents, saying, “AI can do the job better, require less staff, and enable continuous check-ups on customers and transactions for money-laundering issues and sanctions violations.”

From financial crime to heart attacks

To understand the power of AI-driven systems of intelligence in confronting these myriad challenges, it’s worth looking at how similar tools are revolutionizing health care – specifically preventing heart attacks.

The Semmelweis University Heart and Vascular Center in Hungary has treated thousands of patients with heart disease. They collected troves of data and images to create a patient similarity network. In short, they had a potentially powerful system of record. However unlocking the system’s potential required deploying an AI platform. The platform found patterns and delivered insights. This was achieved through a combination of topological data analysis and supervised and unsupervised learning.

The Center created a system of intelligence that is now detecting cardiovascular risk sooner, predicting patient outcomes more accurately — and saving lives.

Headcount

This example shows how a system of record is only the first step in deploying data to improve outcomes. Taking the next step allows organizations to identify recurring problems. And they do it far more effectively. They start looking ahead constantly to identify risk. During a time of staff shortages and rising demands across sectors, AI crucially allows companies to increase efficiency without increasing head counts.

More than three in four financial executives see AI-enabled risk detection driving improvements in fraud prevention over the next year, according to a recent survey. More than half see it driving advancements in credit decisions and cost savings.

Firms with a system of intelligence stand to see significant reductions on two fronts. They significantly cut costs. And they avoid the potentially crushing blow of attacks or missed opportunities.

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Innovation is pushing the boundaries of what businesses can accomplish regarding efficiency and operational excellence. From software powered by artificial intelligence to low-code enterprise platforms, there are so many paths toward digital transformation that it can be hard to know what’s best for your organization. However, one thing is sure: if you aren’t ahead of the intelligent automation curve, you could soon fall behind.

Indeed, the saturation of buzz around generative AI and the constant upcropping of startups hoping to capitalize on the hottest IT trends can instill skepticism in some IT leaders. After all, it’s inadvisable to reflexively adopt every new enterprise tool you see purely for fear of accruing a technical debt. However, those entirely resistant to automation needlessly limit their businesses’ potential in the long run.

IT leaders and innovation officers should look honestly at the state of their organization’s processes and employees. If any of the following situations apply, it should be taken as a hint that you are already overdue for intelligent automation.

Your Team is Tired of Manual Entry

Are your employees feeling fed up with repetition and monotony? A high volume of their tasks could likely be expedited through intelligent automation.

This isn’t to say that their role can be replaced entirely by technology but rather augmented in a way that increases both productivity and fulfillment. Employees often spend hours of their days on arduous work – typically involving documents – instead of stimulating, challenging, and rewarding projects.

Intelligent Document Processing — High Processing Rates

Intelligent document processing (IDP) leverages artificial intelligence with optical character recognition to quickly read and extract key data from documents, classify data, and ingest it into other applications such as enterprise resource planning (ERP) or robotic process automation (RPA) platforms with staggering accuracy. IDP solutions can yield high straight-through processing rates, meaning documents like invoices can be processed without any manual intervention. Instead of spending hours on manual data entry, employees can instead monitor accuracy and intervene only when necessary.

Your IDP Never Gets Tired

IDP solutions are also immune to fatigue, reducing the likelihood of errors. Not only that, but AI-driven document skills can be plugged in easily into existing workflows and trained to yield better results by processing volumes of documents, increasing the value of IDP over time.

While these platforms don’t completely replace humans, they drastically improve document-centric processes, allowing employees’ time to be spent on more fulfilling work while also boosting an organization’s revenue by accelerating time-to-value in achieving business goals. If you’re detecting declining motivation or growing frustration from employees, consider adding intelligent document processing to your automation checklist.

You Experience High Customer Onboarding Abandonment — Needs Intelligent Automation

Consumers aren’t immune to repetition fatigue either. As they grow accustomed to the streamlined customer experience offered by many financial institutions and other entities, their tolerance for lengthy and tedious onboarding processes diminishes.

Research shows that the top three reasons behind onboarding abandonment are:

• Too many steps
• Lengthy identity proofing
• Excessive manual entry

Customers want to feel like a valued priority, and demanding excessive manual entry and invasive identity proofing contradicts that expectation.

Businesses can use intelligent identity proofing to ensure that their first point of contact with customers is a positive one. Instead of typing on a miniature keyboard and toggling between device screens, applications, and emails, identity proofing should be able to be completed from a single screen in under two minutes.

Streamlining onboarding with intelligent identity proofing allows people to automatically upload all pertinent information using their smartphone camera to capture and send trailing documents to populate form fields. This emphasizes that the customer’s experience is a priority and fortifies a reputable brand reputation, thus preventing abandonment, increasing customer acquisition and advocacy, and driving revenue. If your business faces frequent onboarding dropouts, intelligent identity proofing is the solution for you.

Only Your IT Department Can Use Your Tools

Consumers’ demand for speedy service is not exclusive to onboarding.

Many businesses, such as tax preparation companies, rely on agile internal processes to deliver value to customers in a timely manner. If legacy systems do not permit easy customization to fit unique circumstances, the back end can quickly become encumbered with support tickets and bureaucracy that delay the customer’s outcome.

Organizations should adopt low/no-code platforms with accessible interfaces that can be used outside the IT department. Rather than depending on employees with backgrounds in tech or computer science, businesses can empower the “citizen developer,” enabling a new standard of agility to help your business deliver value at the speed of thought.

You Have Bottlenecks in Your Processes — Automation Solves the Issue

Organizations experience workflow bottlenecks but lack the visibility they need to address pain points and make the appropriate changes accurately. Moreover, 70% of automation attempts fail because of unclear or misguided goals.

Process intelligence can scrutinize processes at a granular level every step of the way.

Process intelligence is the combination of task and process mining; task mining examines individual actions, such as keystrokes, while process mining is more concerned with steps in an entire workflow. Monitoring processes with these techniques yields data that helps businesses more accurately understand how to optimize their operations, whether it be through hiring, automating, or reallocating resources.

Sometimes, organizations attempt to automate the wrong stage of a workflow, which can have unintended consequences like shifting a bottleneck to later in a process where it becomes more visible to the consumer. This uncertainty can hinder digital transformation success. If your organization is considering intelligent automation and wants to ward off failure, process intelligence is key to ensuring that your automation initiatives succeed.

You Struggle with Scalability

Volatile economic and market factors shift businesses’ needs over time, but adapting processes to a shift in the status quo should not be difficult.

Intelligent automation solutions offer the scalability that enterprises need to adjust their operations however needed proactively. Whether it’s a change in the quantity of documents being processed, the number of employees delegated to a task, or onsite or remote, intelligent automation will give organizations visibility and flexibility when faced with growing or diminishing demand for their services.

The economy is cyclical, markets are fluid, and businesses should never expect to operate at the same volume and tempo for very long. Nonetheless, decision-makers should always be prepared to make the appropriate changes necessary to protect the long-term health of their employees and their organization. Intelligent automation ensures they can make these changes as quickly as their business landscape evolves.

Everything is On-Premise

Not everything has to be in the cloud, but organizations that embrace cloud-native platforms can reap the rewards of newfound efficiency and flexibility. The use of the cloud is a significant aspect of scalability that can — to an extent — future-proof business from unforeseen events.

Cloud-native platforms empower easier management of systems and solutions, drive collaboration, and ultimately result in a superior customer experience.

The cloud increases the potential for desirable business and customer outcomes, and a well-designed security strategy can reduce the risk of information security discrepancies relative to on-premises tech stacks.

If your business has the infrastructure necessary to use cloud-native solutions, consider adopting intelligent automation platforms that are built around cloud technology.

Intelligent Automation in Your Business

Automation can be a contentious topic, especially with the rise in conversation around artificial intelligence and its implications. However, when adopted with the right business goals and implementation strategies in mind — it can transform organizations that benefit employees, customers, and other stakeholders.

If your organization struggles with efficiency, front-facing experience, scalability, or any other facet of operational excellence, it’s time to put your information to work and start automating intelligently.

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Cloud security automation is crucial for protecting your team’s cloud environment from today’s ever-changing threat landscape. Automating security protocols can be overwhelming — especially if your team is new to cybersecurity. Luckily, a straightforward six-step process can take you from default security protocols to a customized, automated cloud security framework.

1. Evaluation and Risk Assessment

The first step to automate cloud security is a thorough evaluation and risk assessment. Before automating anything, you need to understand how your cloud environment is running. This first stage will identify key automation opportunities, highlighting vulnerabilities and risk factors. That data will be the foundation of your cloud security automation strategy.

Suppose you or your organization have not run a cybersecurity risk assessment before. In that case, a basic five-step approach can prevent confusion. While the risk assessment should include all the organization’s systems, prioritize cloud-related data and infrastructure. Keep in mind an app can be highly secure and still be high risk.

A risk assessment should highlight the threats facing your organization’s most important data, apps, systems, and infrastructure. Cybersecurity risk rankings indicate what could occur in the case of compromise. Ideally, all high-risk systems and data are highly protected. Take note whenever the risk assessment reveals something is both high risk and highly vulnerable.

At this stage, it’s also important to establish your organization’s goals for cloud security. After thoroughly reviewing the risk assessment results, pinpoint a few measurable areas for improvement. For example, you may want to automate some system updates using scripting or implement an automated API security scanner.

These targets will be the foundation of your cloud security automation strategy. It may even be helpful to rank a few goals from highest to lowest priority. This will provide a starting point for your team to focus on as you begin implementing automated cloud security solutions.

2. Expand Cloud Visibility

A crucial part of effective cybersecurity is visibility, but it can be easy to miss things in a cloud environment due to its dispersed nature. Securing the cloud effectively requires expanding your visibility of your cloud resources.

During the risk assessment stage, you may have even stumbled on risks or opportunities you didn’t realize you had. Those are signs you need to improve your visibility of your cloud environment. Building out a cloud asset management platform can pool all your cloud resources into one hub where you can keep an eye on things.

A cloud asset management platform acts as a control center for your cloud environment. It includes all the devices, apps, services, servers, and systems running in your cloud environment — and any critical data, such as usage statistics.

Remember to include physical devices in your management platform. It’s easy to concentrate on software when working with the cloud, but an increasing number of cloud systems rely on input from physical technologies. Those same devices may depend on the cloud to operate correctly.

A great example of this is IoT appliances. These devices are great for automating data collection from sensors, but they are also highly vulnerable to DDoS attacks and often suffer from poor visibility. IoT devices have notoriously weak default security parameters, as well. As a result, it is crucial to have high visibility of IoT devices’ activity and connections to ensure tight security.

Many pre-built cloud asset management platforms are available today, although building your own is possible. However, check with your cloud provider before purchasing or building a management platform. Some may offer one with your subscription, or have a partnership or discount available for 3rd party management platforms.

3. Automated Cloud Security Basics

Once you have a clear understanding of the principal risks and priorities in your cloud environment and a way of monitoring all of it, you can begin implementing automation. It is often a good idea to start with basic automated cloud security measures. This includes automation that covers high-risk gaps and establishes a minimum security level for the whole cloud environment.

For example, every cloud environment should utilize encryption, which most of today’s leading cloud providers offer some level of. You should encrypt your cloud data in three stages (securityboulevard.com)/  — transit, rest, and in-use. This protects your data from unauthorized use, even if it is somehow intercepted or compromised at any stage.

The encryption does not automate any processes but ensures data is safe as it moves through your cloud environment. This allows you to implement automated strategies with less anxiety about potentially putting your data at risk.

Automated cloud data backups are another crucial security measure to implement. Data backups to the cloud are becoming more common today, but you can also back up data already in the cloud. Automating regular backups is a crucial part of any disaster recovery plan, including natural disasters and cyber-attacks.

The cloud is more resilient to natural disasters than on-prem servers, but accidents can still happen. Whether it’s the result of a cyber-attack or an unfortunate accident, losing crucial data causes about 60% of small businesses to go under within six months of the loss. So, ensure your cloud data is backed up in a different server location than the data center your cloud resources usually run from. You could even store backups in on-premises data storage. The important part is to make sure backups are happening autonomously at scheduled intervals.

Access control is the third must-have protocol to implement before automating security on a larger scale. It is all too easy for unauthorized users to move through cloud environments since they are dispersed and untethered to physical devices. Effective access control automates the process of denying access to unauthorized users and accounts.

4. Implement Case-Specific Cloud Security Automation

Now that some basic cloud security measures are in place, you can automate more complex processes. At this stage, refer to the goals you established in the first step of the cloud security automation process. Use those aims to identify what you want to automate first, and focus on one or two new integrations at a time.

In this stage, your team will automate higher-risk, more complex security protocols beyond the basics. Each organization’s cloud security automation strategy will differ significantly depending on your unique risk factors and cloud environment.

For example, your team might use a lot of APIs in your workflows. APIs are great for getting different apps and services to work well together but can also be big security risks. Luckily, you can automate API security scans to verify that the tools your team is using are trustworthy. Workload security scans can also be automated.

Similarly, you can use MFA and 2FA to automate identity verification and strengthen your access control. Scripting is another excellent cloud security automation tool to try out. Scripting can automate repetitive security processes like configuration or server updates.

Certain circumstances may also warrant unique cloud security automation tactics. For example, if some of your team members work remotely, you face unique cloud security risks. Muli-factor authentication and automated security updates using scripting will be especially helpful in this situation.

What if you want to automate specific processes on some cloud applications but not others? In this case, you can separate your cloud environment into isolated segments. You don’t need a private cloud to do this, either. You can use a hypervisor to create a remote server in any cloud environment, even shared public clouds.

A virtual private server allows you to customize the security protocols of different chunks of your cloud environment. In fact, segmenting your cloud resources can even improve cybersecurity. It prevents bad actors from gaining complete access to your cloud resources and limits the potential blast radius of a cyber attack.

5. Integrate Automated Threat Monitoring

Threat monitoring is a critical component of any cloud security automation strategy. Automating this is a high-risk process, so it is best to implement automated threat monitoring without any distractions. When trusting an AI to key an eye on your cloud environment, you must dedicate time and effort to ensuring you use a trustworthy algorithm.

Many organizations are diving into AI tools today, including cybersecurity algorithms. Running AI in the cloud allows you to use those tools without intensive on-prem computing resources. AI can be helpful for employees, customers, maintenance, security, and more, but it does come with some risks.

For example, poorly trained AI models can suffer from outdated data, compromised data, or even data bias. Researching an AI model and its developer carefully is crucial before investing in any AI security tools. Look for an algorithm trained on a large data set that gets updates regularly. Timely updates are vital for preventing zero-day attacks.

Schedule a pilot program once you identify an AI threat monitoring program that fits your cloud environment well. There are many ways to go about this. For instance, you could automate threat monitoring in one segment of your cloud environment and continue manual monitoring in others. Closely track and analyze the algorithm’s performance during this testing stage.

You can integrate AI into your cloud environment if it is more effective than manual monitoring. If the algorithm’s performance is disappointing, don’t be afraid to try out other AI threat monitoring tools. Take your time to find the model that gives your cloud resources the best protection possible.

6. Track, Evaluate, and Adjust

Each time you integrate a new automated cloud security measure, carefully track and evaluate its performance. Ideally, automated tools will save time and catch more suspicious activity. If something is hurting the network or simply not practical, take time to adjust it or replace it with a different automated security tool.

Automating security in the cloud is an ongoing process. It requires regular check-up sessions to evaluate success and identify what needs updating. Remember — the cloud threat landscape is always changing. Some automation solutions may eventually go out of date or become obsolete. Carefully monitor security news and emerging threats, and analyze your automation strategy for ways to stay ahead of hackers.

Automating Security in the Cloud

As more and more operations, businesses, tools, and computing environments move to the cloud, building resilient cloud security is increasingly important. You can use these six steps to go from zero cloud security to a robust and flexible automated cloud security system. Continuous improvement is critical to adapting to emerging threats, so repeat this process periodically and closely monitor automated security performance.

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Security is essential for all industries, but healthcare faces more pressure than most. Hospitals store vast amounts of highly sensitive information, making them ideal targets for cybercrime, so their defenses must be extensive. User and entity behavioral analytics (UEBA) are one of the most helpful tools in that endeavor.

The medical sector is no stranger to artificial intelligence, but most medical AI applications focus on patient care or administrative work. Applying it to cybersecurity in the form of UEBA is a crucial step forward.

What Is User and Entity Behavioral Analytics?

User and entity behavioral analytics use machine learning to detect threats like breached accounts or ransomware. While protections like multi-factor authentication try to prevent attacks, UEBA instead focuses on stopping threats that slip through the cracks before they can cause much damage.

UEBA analyzes how different users and entities — like routers or Internet of Things (IoT) devices — behave on a network. After establishing baselines for normal behavior, machine learning tools can detect suspicious activity. They may see an account trying to access a database it rarely needs or downloading something at an odd time and flag it as a potential breach.

This process is similar to how your bank may freeze your credit card if you make a few unusual purchases. However, it applies the concept to network behavior and uses AI to make it faster and more accurate.

UEBA Benefits

UEBA use cases have many benefits spanning multiple applications. Here’s a brief look at some of their most significant.

Accuracy

Behavioral analytics systems are highly accurate. Machine learning can pick up on trends and patterns in data humans may miss, so UEBA tools can outperform human analysts when determining what is and isn’t suspicious. When properly applied, UEBA can also yield false positive rates as low as 3%, ensuring security teams don’t waste their time or resources.

UEBA can achieve higher accuracies than rule-based monitoring systems because it’s adaptive. Machine learning algorithms continually gather new data and adjust their decision-making as trends shift. That way, they can account for nuances like users slowly adopting new habits or activities being normal in some situations but not others.

Efficiency

Another benefit of UEBA is it’s fast. Machine learning tools can detect and classify anomalies almost instantly when it may take a human a few minutes. Even if those time savings are just a few seconds, they can make a considerable difference when dealing with cyber threats.

UEBA tools can often detect suspicious behavior before an account or breached device causes any real damage. By identifying and isolating threats earlier, they can dramatically reduce the impact of an attack. IBM found reducing data breach response timelines saves organizations $1.12 million on average.

Versatility

UEBA is also versatile compared to similar security tools. Some organizations employ user behavior analytics (UBA), which provides similar benefits but only looks at user activity. By also including entities, UEBA expands its detection capabilities to IoT attacks and other hardware breaches, helping prevent a broader range of incidents.

Machine learning tools like UEBA are also more versatile than rule-based anomaly detection. AI models can adapt to changing situations and account for situational differences, which rule-based systems can’t. That flexibility is vital for healthcare organizations, as telehealth has grown 38 times over its pre-COVID levels, meaning more medical staff may access systems from changing locations.

UEBA Use Cases in Healthcare

These benefits are impressive, but how much medical companies experience them depends on how they apply this technology. In that spirit, here are the five best user and entity behavior analytics use cases in healthcare.

1. Automating Risk Management

Risk management automation is one of healthcare organizations’ most beneficial UEBA use cases. IT monitoring is crucial in this industry, but many businesses need more time or staff to manage it manually. Cybersecurity talent faces a skills gap across all sectors, and over 70% of medical workers say they already work more hours because of electronic health records (EHRs).

UEBA reduces that burden by handling network threat detection without manual input. Hospitals don’t need large security teams to monitor their systems 24/7 because AI will do it for them.

Because UEBA is so accurate and efficient, medical staff can use electronic systems more efficiently. There will be fewer verification stops or run-ins because of false positives, helping reduce the burden of EHRs. Those time savings improve both cybersecurity and patient care.

2. Detecting EHR Breaches

UEBA has many advantageous specific use cases under the automation umbrella, too. One of the most relevant for healthcare organizations is detecting and responding to breaches in EHR systems.

Electronic records make it far easier to manage patient data, but they also introduce significant security risks. There were over 700 health record breaches of 500 records or more in 2022 alone, with an average of almost two breaches daily. Given this issue’s common and severe, UEBA is an indispensable tool.

UEBA can recognize when an app or account is accessing an unusual amount of records or interacting with them atypically. It can then lock the user or entity in question before it can delete, download, or share these files, preventing a breach.

3. Stopping Ransomware Attacks

Ransomware prevention is another leading UEBA use case in healthcare. The rise of ransomware-as-a-service has made these attacks increasingly common, and the medical industry is a prime target.

Ransomware attacks against healthcare organizations have more than doubled between 2016 and 2021. Stopping these incidents early is critical to minimizing damage and protecting patients’ privacy. UEBA provides that speed.

Before ransomware can steal or lock any files, it must access them all. However, UEBA will notice an unknown program suddenly trying to access a large amount of data. It can then restrict access and isolate the file, account or device from which the ransomware spreads before it can encrypt anything. That way, hospitals can prevent ransomware before losing any sensitive information.

4. Preventing Insider Threats

UEBA is also a valuable tool for addressing insider threats, which are particularly prevalent in healthcare. In fact, insider error accounts for more than twice as many breached medical records as malicious activity. Because UEBA detects all anomalies — not just those from outsiders — it can help find and prevent these mistakes.

If a doctor, nurse or other staff member tried to access something they don’t usually need, UEBA would flag it as suspicious. If it were just an accident, this stoppage would bring the issue to the employee’s attention, letting them see and correct their mistake; if it were a malicious insider, UEBA would stop them from abusing their privileges.

UEBA can detect more than just unusual access activity too. It can also identify and stop actions like sharing credentials or attempts to send files to unauthorized users. That way, it can prevent employees from falling for phishing attempts, which account for most insider threats.

5. Securing IoT Endpoints

As IoT adoption in healthcare grows, IoT security becomes an increasingly advantageous UEBA use case. The IoT falls out of the scope of traditional user behavior analytics use cases because UBA systems don’t account for devices, only people. By contrast, UEBA includes endpoints, so it can address IoT concerns.

Just as UEBA spots irregular behavior in user accounts, it can detect unusual connections or access attempts from IoT devices. Consequently, it can stop hackers from using a smart device with low built-in security as a gateway to more sensitive systems and data.

Stopping this lateral movement is crucial, as IoT devices typically have weak security, and hospitals use a lot of them. More than half of all medical IoT devices also feature critical known vulnerabilities, so improving IoT security is essential for the industry.

Behavioral Analytics Are a Must for Healthcare

These UEBA use cases scratch the surface of what this technology can do for medical organizations. As EHR adoption and cybercrime both rise, capitalizing on these applications will become all the more important.

The healthcare industry must take cybercrime seriously. User and entity behavioral analytics systems are some of the most effective tools for that goal.

Featured Image Credit: Provided by the Author; Pexels; Thank you!

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If you’re using WordPress for your website, you know you’ve laid the foundation for a strong business. WordPress powers 43% of all online websites today. And has 64% of the Content Management System marketplace.

Because there are tens of thousands of businesses and developers in this ecosystem, you can scale your business as you like and make it into a marketing powerhouse.

The only trouble is figuring out which are the best plugins you should have to ensure the growth of your brand. There are thousands of free and paid WordPress plugins available, but you want to work with those that are updated and have a good customer service reputation.

In this post, I’ll cover the best WordPress marketing plugins for 2023 that will take your business to the next level.

My disclosure is that I’ve helped develop or grow almost all the tools on the WordPress site. My business also supports the WordPress community in many ways  — something I’m proud of.

However, I guarantee that the following plugins are the absolute best in their niches and will make a difference in driving conversions on your site.

The Best WordPress Marketing Plugins 2023

Let’s start with essential but critical marketing plugins to grow your brand. And move to additional plugins you can add to take your company to the next level.

1. Optin popups – OptinMonster

Question: What’s the easiest and most effective way to grow your email list?

The Answer: is optin popup forms to collect email ids and build your subscriber list.

A tool like OptinMonster makes it easy to quickly create optin popups that you can display on your website.

The idea is that most people who visit your site will leave and never return. Your best bet to reengage a good portion of them is to collect people’s email addresses before they leave the site.

You can set up an optin popup form to appear:

• After the user spends a specific amount of time on your website
• When they reach the bottom of a blog post
• When they’re about to exit a page and so on

You can use an optin popup form to offer a free download, a discount, or something else to make a compelling reason for people to enter their emails.

2. Google Analytics – MonsterInsights

You can’t grow your business fast and in the right direction if you don’t know how it’s doing right now. And to get the most relevant details about your website performance, you need to rely on Google Analytics.

However, Google Analytics is hard for business entrepreneurs and owners to use and leverage. This is why you should use an analytics plugin like MonsterInsights.

This plugin gives you a visual platform with all the relevant details in one place. It will show you what traffic you’re getting, your audience demographics, and what your top content is.

With such insights, you’ll quickly learn where you should put your focus and check if you’re growing your business or stagnating.

3. Content Marketing and SEO – All in One SEO

Your business is essentially dead if it doesn’t appear on search results pages.

And to ensure that your brand does show up on Google, you need to leverage SEO or search engine optimization.

This refers to the technical and content-based best practices you should follow to improve your website and content. Sounds complicated? It is. Especially when SEO or content marketing are not your areas of expertise.

However, an SEO plugin and content marketing tool like AIOSEO (All in One SEO) make the process a breeze. This plugin will do things like:

• Create an XML site map
• Add schema markup to your content so Google recognizes what your content is about. For example, schema markup extracts information like star ratings, recipe cook times, cuisines, and so on for food blogs.
• Helps you optimize your business for local areas
• Manage your robots.txt file to choose what content on your site gets indexed
• Audit your site for errors
• Improve your blog posts with keyword placements, suggestions for alt text for your images, and much more

As you can see, SEO is difficult at best. And having a powerful tool like AIOSEO to optimize your content makes a massive difference.

4. Form plugins – WPForms

You probably don’t realize it, but forms make the internet. Almost everything you use is a type of form tool online. You’re using a form when you enter something on a search platform.

When entering your credit card details, you’re using a form.

And if you want leads for your business, you need to use forms too.

WPForms is the best WordPress plugin for creating forms on your website quickly and easily. You might think that there should be plenty of great form plugins available to use, but that just isn’t the case.

Most form plugins aren’t responsive to different device sizes and screens. And they have limitations like a lack of payment gateways and so on. This is why I recommend WPForms as a necessary marketing plugin for WordPress.

With this plugin, you can easily build:

• Contact forms
• Lead generation forms
• Forms to collect user-generated content like stories for a competition, feedback, and so on
• Event registration forms
• Simple order forms
• Simple product purchase forms with payment options
• Release forms
• Beneficiary forms

And just about anything you can think of that requires collecting information and engaging your audience.

If there’s one tool you should use here, it’s a form tool like WPForms.

5. Push Notifications – PushEngage

So far, we’ve covered some plugins that I consider essential marketing plugins for all businesses. The ones mentioned before are necessary to engage customers well and to get data to help you grow.

This plugin and the ones that follow are next-level marketing plugins that will help you skyrocket your marketing outcomes.

The first of such plugins is a push notification one like PushEngage. Push notifications are pop-up notifications for websites and apps.

I know that popups are considered intrusive and annoying, but that’s not the case when you make thoughtful marketing campaigns aiming to personalize driving value.

A simple push notification can do the following:

• Appear to users in real-time – when they’re active online, so you know your audience will definitely see your content. This is unlike emails where your reader might ignore your email or open it will later when your marketing campaign is over.
• Offer highly personalized content. For example, if your user is on a page for shoes, you can retarget them and suggest a related product.
• Reach out to users who have abandoned products in their carts

There are many such use cases. In one of PushEngage’s successful case studies, one clothing company held a live webinar for hundreds of customers. And they had technical difficulties twice, leading to the event and participants being cut off.

Thanks to PushEngage’s valuable features, they were able to get people back to their event both times because they send notifications to their audience instantly and bring them back.

Push notifications, done right, have higher engagement and conversion rates than any other marketing tool, which is why you need it especially if you have an eCommerce store.

6. Social Feed Plugin – SmashBalloon

The benefit of social media is that it gives you access to millions of people worldwide. But the problem is that your audience is quickly distracted by other content – even from your competition on the same platform.

Also, your fresh and hard-to-create posts frequently disappear and lose momentum just a few hours after publication. If they ever gain momentum at all.

While social media marketing is critical, how can you best leverage it to keep people on your website and also avoid losing them to other content?

One answer to this problem is to use a social feed plugin.

A social feed plugin like SmashBalloon helps aggregate posts from your brand’s social media channels into one single, dynamic stream on your website.

This allows users to quickly get an overview of your content on different platforms without leaving your website.

This plugin also makes it easier to display user-generated content from followers who post about your brand.

Having a social feed plugin is an excellent way to keep people engaged and on your website while showcasing all the amazing posts made by users and produced by your team.

7. Contest Giveaway Plugin – RafflePress

Contest giveaways are great ways to boost engagement on multiple platforms, as they allow you

to interact with your audience in a fun and creative way.

People love the opportunity to get something for free and are likelier to share a giveaway contest with their peers.

However, setting up a giveaway can be complicated; you must create messages, share them on several platforms, collect entries, pick a winner, gather leads, etc.

You want to automate the whole process, and to do that; you should use a giveaway plugin like RafflePress.

This giveaway plugin integrates with email marketing platforms and your CRM (Customer Relationship Management tool). And it will make it easy to set up your contest to go viral with premade templates and ‘refer-a-friend’ programs.

And most importantly, you can track how your campaign is going and get reports to help you make better decisions in the future.

This plugin is a great way to get more leads and engagement for your business.

8. Landing Page Builder – SeedProd

A landing page builder is a tool that helps you create pages for your website. They can help you make special pages to advertise sales or products and get people to buy them.

Creating landing pages is essential for marketing because it can be used to increase conversions, collect leads, and more.

For example, if you’ve ever clicked on an ad, chances are that you’ve landed on a page created with a landing page builder.

And while there are many tools like this, SeedProd is one of the best for WordPress. It has an easy-to-use drag-and-drop system to help you customize your pages quickly and easily.

Plus, it has dozens of templates, so you don’t have to design your pages from scratch.

You can create high-converting landing pages with A/B testing, add forms for collecting leads, and more using this plugin. It’s a great way to get more conversions for any website.

So, there we go. I’ve covered several essential marketing plugins to help you. The tools listed

here have helped thousands of small businesses and individuals reach their goals.

Whether it’s getting more traffic and engagement or collecting more leads, these WordPress plugins will help you make it happen.

Use Marketing Plugins to Boost Your WordPress Site Performance

A successful online business or a strong internet presence is a lot of work. But working with the right plugins can reduce a great deal of work and save you time and resources in the long run.

You also build your brand image and boost your marketing outcomes exponentially. A lead generation tool like an optin popup form will build your email list, while a landing page builder ensures that your ads and social media campaigns lead to real actions by your audience.

So, start with one or two of these plugins, and as you see improvements, leverage the rest to go to the next level.

Featured Image Credit: Photo by Sora Shimazaki; Pexels; Thank you!

The post Best WordPress Marketing Plugins for 2023 appeared first on ReadWrite.

Companies are diversifying their resources and data silos. Some enterprises move this information to cloud providers, while others swear by on-site hardware. Internet of Things (IoT)-connected devices and digital nomadism are expanding the number and type of devices attached to a business, and it’s no wonder hackers are finding more avenues to breach sensitive data stores. Entities must reduce attack surface area to stay protected.

Automation is an invaluable addition to a risk prevention and remediation strategy when reducing the attack surfaces in an organization. What are these tactics, and how can they relieve the burdens of stressed analysts?

What Is an Attack Surface in Cybersecurity?

Several buzzphrases float around to describe points of entry for cybercriminals. Attack surfaces encapsulate every pathway and vulnerability a threat actor could exploit. Experts refer to them as attack vectors. The more attack vectors there are, the larger the attack surface is — expanding how much confidential and sensitive data is up for grabs by malicious individuals.

Every attack vector allows ransomware, phishing, or malware to creep in, compromising identities and infrastructure. These are some of the most common gateways businesses may not even acknowledge as entryways for criminals:

• Weak or compromised credentials
• Outdated software that requires patching
• Utility connections
• Remote desktop connections
• Social engineering to produce insider threats
• Email or text message inboxes
• Third-party vendors and suppliers
• IoT-connected devices and sensors
• Security systems and cameras
• Data centers

Attack surfaces take physical and digital forms, making protection methods diverse. These are only several, shedding light on how many forms an attack vector can make.

Overseeing every digital and physical corner to prevent threats would require more power than most companies can justify. Automation can handle countless mundane scans and tasks to aid workforces in defending each path, especially as attack surfaces are more varied than ever.

What Are the Best Ways to Minimize Attack Surfaces With Automation?

Reducing attack surface can take many forms, but automation can make the most of time and financial investment in a few high-value ways.

1. Execute Scheduled Data Minimization

Data minimization and inventory management — digitally and physically — are the top recommendations in the cybersecurity landscape, especially as regulations become a hot topic for world governments. The EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the U.S.’s American Data Privacy Protection Act (ADPPA) explain how corporations must rein in and be transparent about data collection and use.

The fewer data stores programs that handle that information, the better. Instead of manually combing through countless bytes daily, automation could perform minimization practices on a schedule with proactive programming and secure code, such as:

• Deleting ex-employee or outdated, irrelevant data
• Performing automated data backups to segmented or isolated systems
• Removing data that doesn’t include what’s necessary for operations
• Limiting employee or customer input when gathering data via forms

However, a strategy like this could be a double-edged sword. Programmers and cybersecurity experts may schedule codes to perform these tasks, but more programs running expands the surface area. Experts must optimize the codes to perform various tasks so the surface area remains minimal.

2. Leverage AI and Machine Learning Data

Incorporating AI into a cybersecurity strategy could save companies around $3.05 billion for a much cheaper upfront investment. They must do more than purchase an AI system and hope for the best — it must integrate with an organization’s current technological ecosystem. Otherwise, it could present more attack vectors in the surface area than intended.

Using AI with appropriate tech could remove some drawbacks, including false positives. With well-curated oversight and data management, machine learning could adapt to productive learning environments over time.

AI and machine learning data can funnel into a centralized program to provide more holistic visibility about potential attack vectors. A localized scope of the attack area with data to prove what’s most threatening can guide analysts to eliminate or update these pain points proactively. This eliminates reactivity after a breach.

Real-time data can also indicate trends over time, where IT professionals can see how attack vectors perform as companies implement new tech or adopt digital strategies. It can show how many attempts hackers made against redundant legacy software versus cloud servers. It can gather historical data about vulnerabilities from misconfigurations or out-of-date software to change patching and update schedules. Automating will be invaluable for budget allocations and task prioritization.

3. Reduce Access With Zero Trust

Perhaps a tech stack has to be expansive to cover services and tasks. Reducing the attack surface area could compromise efficiency or service availability. However, automation can execute zero trust to minimize threat vectors by automatically denying access or packet requests. It is still an impactful way to maximize security and automation while keeping tech assets and creating walls against vectors.

Automation can analyze requests based on the time of day and the habits of the credential holder. It could require multiple authentication points before allowing entry, even if someone is granted access. It reduces the chance of hackers taking advantage of human error by remotely questioning a request.

Combining this with the principles of least privilege can get the best of both automation worlds. Automation can assign access controls based on role responsibilities, and zero trust can analyze those assignments to determine safety. It can minimize the 79% of identity-related breaches that will undoubtedly rise if automation doesn’t hone in on authorization and access.

4. Perform Vulnerability Scanning and Management

Many corporations undergo penetration testing, using internal or third-party services to try to break through the digital barriers of businesses actively. Hopefully, they don’t find any vulnerabilities. However, playing the role of an attacker can reveal mismanaged priorities or efforts.

Vulnerability scans do not have the same degree of attention as manual penetration testing but can supplement the time between trials. It can highlight the most critical issues first so organizations know where to place efforts between more human-driven defensive strategies. The scans could execute asset discovery, revealing attack vectors companies never previously recognized and allowing them to fill the hole or eliminate it from the equation altogether.

Recent research revealed these figures about attack surface discovery that vulnerability scans could assist with:

• 72% of respondents claim executing attack surface discovery takes more than 40 hours
• 62% say surfaces have expanded in the last several years
• 56% don’t know which attack vectors are critical to the business, meaning there is little direction on what to protect

What if Companies Don’t Reduce Attack Surfaces?

What is an attack surface other than an opportunity? Increasing the number of attack vectors benefits nobody except for the offensive side of the digital battle. Therefore, defenders must minimize them to prevent the worst from happening.

It’s more complicated because humans have developed tech landscapes past what perimeter security can guard. Companies that don’t attempt to make their nebulous digital borders tangible will be misguided about how protected they are.

The price of cybersecurity breaches rises yearly, especially as businesses move to remote operations inspired by the pandemic. Massive media scandals from careless data breaches reflect the damage one uncared-for attack vector can have on a company. It potentially jeopardizes decades of enterprise forging and risks employees’ livelihoods.

A company that’s hacked could lose its reputation as publications spread the word about its inability to protect consumers, employees, or third-party relationships. Bad press equates to lost revenue, making public relations and marketing departments work overtime to salvage what automation can do a relatively accurate job of preventing.

Reduce Attack Surfaces to Eliminate Hackers’ Options

Minimize the attack surface in an organization’s tech stack with intelligently deployed automation tools. They can take many forms, either as external equipment or software, but it will always come back to how well programmers crafted the tools and how attentively analysts oversee them.

Automation can relieve stress and perform many tasks with high accuracy, but it must align with dedicated professionals who take care of these systems for optimization.

Featured Image Credit: Pexels; Thank you!

The post How to Use Automation to Reduce Your Attack Surface appeared first on ReadWrite.

Business finances are sometimes challenging to manage, and without a solid financial system and strategy in place, your business could fall into disarray. With the help of an automated payment solution, you may be able to save time, save money, and streamline operations – and in the age of AI, our automated payment technologies are more advanced than ever.

But how exactly do these platforms work and are they always worth using?

How Do Automated Payment Systems Work?

What is an automated payment system for business, anyway?

Your business is responsible for making payments to countless vendors and suppliers. If it’s a large business, or a complicated one, you might be responsible for processing hundreds or even thousands of payments every day.

Ordinarily, you’ll have to undertake this as a tedious, manual effort. People on your accounting team will be responsible for manually reviewing each invoice, submitting payments, troubleshooting issues, and so on.

An automated payment system attempts to make this much more streamlined, efficient, and (in many ways) touchless. Through this type of system, your business will be able to pay invoices electronically, instead of with paper checks. Your business will be able to process and approve payments for multiple invoices in batches, rather than looking at them one at a time. Your business will be able to use various payment methods, including wire transfers, virtual credit cards, and ACH transfers, to meet the requirements of your vendors.

As you might imagine, there are many different types of automated payment systems available for businesses to adopt. Features vary from platform to platform, but most automated payment systems have similar fundamentals.

The Pros and Cons of Automated Payment Systems

What are the pros and cons of using an automated payment system?

These are the advantages:

•  Time savings. The biggest advantage is likely time savings. At the largest scales, and over a long enough time, an automated payment solution can save your organization hundreds if not thousands of man-hours. This could prevent you from needing to hire more people. It could free up your team members to focus on more important responsibilities. And perhaps most importantly, it saves you money on labor.
• Cost savings. Saving money on labor is just the beginning, however. Because these payment systems are quick, easy, and capable of batching payments together, they typically come with lower transaction costs. If you add up all the cost-saving elements of your platform, it’s not hard to see why an automated payment solution can pay for itself.
• Reduction of human error. Better financial technology can greatly reduce the role of human error in your daily operations. Obviously, errors are still possible, but they’re much less likely with an automated, efficient machine in place. Invoice mistakes could become a thing of the past.
• Improved transparency. Good automated payment systems have thorough tracking and reporting, so you have full transparency at every step of the process. If something goes wrong, you’ll be able to figure out why. If you’re looking for more advanced accounting analytics, you’ll be able to obtain them.
•  Better security. In many ways, automated payments are much more secure than manual payments. There are fewer humans involved at every step, and the process is so fast and seamless that there are many opportunities for fraud.
• Faster financial closing. Some businesses love the advantage of faster financial closing. Thanks to all the time you’ll save, you’ll be in a prime position to close out your payments in record time.
• Better relationships with suppliers. Your suppliers are also going to appreciate your automated payment system; they get their money faster and they have less to worry about. In some cases, they can even choose how they get paid.

There aren’t many downsides to consider, assuming you choose the best platform:

• Price. Most automated payment solutions aren’t free. Depending on what you’re looking for, you could end up paying up to a few hundred dollars every month for this solution. But considering how much time and money you’re likely to save, this investment is usually worth it.
• The initial rollout. Some businesses have trouble initially rolling out a platform like this. If your team is used to issuing payments manually, or if you already have many different types of accounting software in play, this can be technically challenging and frustrating for the people in your organization who are resistant to change. Still, with proper preparations, you can mitigate this potential problem.
• Technical errors. Technical errors can be a complicating factor for almost any type of technology, and automated payment solutions are no exception. Programming errors, user misuse, and other glitches may occasionally present temporary challenges that need to be overcome.

How to Choose the Best Automated Payment System

One of the caveats here is that you’re only going to reap the greatest benefits of automated payments if you choose the best platform for your business.

These are the most important variables to consider on this front:

• Core features. Your most important consideration should be the core features associated with this platform. What types of payments are available? How do you set up automatic payments? What other features are available? What support is available for data transparency and reporting?
• Usability. Your automated payment system might be capable of doing most of the work regarding your payments, but human beings will still be responsible for using it on a daily basis. Accordingly, you also need to think about usability. Is it going to be relatively simple to train and educate people on how to use this platform? Will your staff members benefit from using it?
• Compatibility. What about compatibility? Does this platform integrate with other accounting platforms that you’re already using? How does it fit into the rest of your technology stack?
• Reliability. Automation is only beneficial if it’s reliable. Does this platform have a demonstrated track record of success? Are there ample good reviews and testimonials?
• Pricing. Obviously, you’ll need to think about pricing. Some automation platforms are more expensive than others; they may be worth the extra money, but that’s on you to decide.
• Support and troubleshooting. What happens if and when something goes wrong? Is there adequate customer service available to help you resolve potential issues?
• Developer roadmap. Finally, find and consider the developer road map. Does the development team seem focused on providing ongoing support for the platform? Are there interesting new features in the works?

Additional Best Practices

There are also some additional best practices that you should follow when using an automated payment system for your business:

• Ensure a smooth rollout. New technology isn’t always a purely good addition to your business. There may be certain challenges preventing your business from integrating this software into the other accounting software you’re using. It may be challenging to convince your staff members that this platform is worth using, or difficult to train them to use it. But with proper proactive planning, you can mitigate most of these issues and ensure a smooth rollout.
• Offer multiple payment options. Within your automated payments platform, you may have the option of what types of payments to offer. Generally, the more flexible you are, the better it is for your suppliers, so offer multiple payment options if you can.
• Test and monitor regularly. Automation is incredibly valuable, and in many cases, almost perfectly reliable. But it’s still a good idea to have some human checks and balances in place; test and monitor your software regularly to ensure it’s working as intended.

With better automated payment systems in place, your business can save time, save money, reduce human error, and make your suppliers happier. There are some costs, and initial integrations may be technically challenging, but this is an investment that can pay off for almost any business that makes payments on a large enough scale.

The post Why Your Business Should Be Using Automated Payment Systems appeared first on ReadWrite.

Is digital biology the next big thing? In a world where AI services like ChatGPT and Midjourney dominate the hype cycle, this might sound like quite the claim. But it’s based on a solid foundation. As digital biology tools continue to evolve, their potential to have transformative impacts across industries is becoming clearer by the day.

If you’re a leader looking for the next big step in biology, you can’t afford to sleep on this technology. To understand what I mean, let’s look at some industries ripe for transformation and how digital biology tools can push them to new heights.

WHERE DIGITAL BIOLOGY IS MAKING A NAME FOR ITSELF

Healthcare is perhaps the most apparent industry where digital biology plays an increasingly important role. Through a combination of data, AI, and computational tools, scientists and researchers can significantly reduce the time it takes to diagnose diseases and develop complex biopharmaceuticals.

Companies like Recursion are already using these tools. The company is working to develop new therapeutic molecules for oncology, neuroscience, inflammation and immunology, and rare diseases through automation and machine learning.

Healthcare and Digital Biology

But healthcare isn’t the only area digital biology can be applied. Materials, chemicals, food, and agriculture can benefit from these tools. For example, multiscale predictive modeling of plant growth makes it possible to explore new breeding avenues that combine the mapping of biological systems with the analysis of large data sets. In other words, it can bring true scalability to systems biology for the first time.

This technology can go even further in food production, speeding up the process to create novel food products and nutritional ingredients with less environmental impact and potentially more health benefits. Extracting information from the human genome and combining it with other data on metabolism, immunity, behavior, gut microbes, and clinical variables can enable precision nutrition that helps us make better dietary choices.

Digital biology is also being used in the materials and chemicals industry. For instance, Solugen is using these tools to genetically engineer enzymes to develop more sustainable chemicals.

Other Applications of Digital Biology

These are just some examples of the applications of digital biology. The benefits of digital biology are wide-ranging and will affect numerous professional fields. To understand how your company can harness its potential, let’s look at the benefits it can provide anyone working in the field:

1. GREATER PERSONALIZATION

Personalization means tailoring products and services to each individual or group’s specific needs, preferences, and characteristics. Digital biology makes personalization possible by leveraging biological data, like genetic data, to identify each person’s or population’s unique biological features and variations. With this information, digital biology can design and deliver more customized and effective solutions for different biological contexts.

2. BETTER PRECISION

The power of large biological databases isn’t limited to personalization. They can also help companies zero in on solutions with precision. In healthcare, this can improve diagnoses, treatments, and disease prevention. For instance, GRAIL is transforming early cancer detection using digital biology tools. Its multi-cancer early-detection blood tests analyze DNA shed by all cells, including cancer cells, into the bloodstream.

The company adopts ML algorithms trained by massive data sets to identify abnormal methylation patterns on those cell-free DNA fragments that may indicate the presence of cancer, significantly increasing the chance of early cancer detection.

3. INCREASED EFFICIENCY

Data and ML can speed up the discovery of new solutions and treatments. Meanwhile, tools like biological sensors can keep track of industrial processes and improve the efficiency with which resources are used. The result is that more products are discovered and developed on faster timelines — all while using fewer resources.

4. REDUCED COSTS AND IMPROVED SUPPLY CHAINS

Companies are eager to look for new solutions to reduce costs and improve supply chains of scarce raw materials, especially in the post-pandemic world. For example, properly engineered microorganisms can be deployed to ferment plant-based feedstock to produce products, reducing dependence on traditional raw materials that might be limited and expensive. In this case, computational technologies enable analysis and modeling of the metabolic pathways and gene circuits involved in fermentation, improving yield and scalability.

5. MORE SUSTAINABILITY

There is increasing demand from consumers and regulators to move away from traditional, high-carbon-footprint products and processes, developing innovative ways of manufacturing products that are more environmentally sustainable than existing ones.

For example, a few years ago, researchers developed a plastic-eating enzyme called PETase; however, it wasn’t ready on an industrial scale. Using a combination of lab automation and computational technologies, researchers can now test thousands of enzyme variants at speeds traditional experimental methods couldn’t imagine.

The strains can be optimized for the ideal productivity and scalability, while the molecules from plastics breakdown can be reused and synthesized into new materials, reducing carbon footprints.

From precision medicine and disease diagnosis to cultivated meat and sustainable chemicals, digital biology can potentially change the game in several positive ways. With an increasing number of digital biology tools available, there are fewer and fewer excuses not to delve into this promising new field.

By taking the lead in this space, you can spur your organization on to new discoveries and more sustainable processes that will benefit your business and the people you serve for years to come.

Featured Image Credit: Provided by the Author; Pexels; Thank you!

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Investing is an art, and one of the key principles is diversification. Diversifying your portfolio helps mitigate risks and maximize potential returns. With the growing popularity of cryptocurrencies, it has become crucial to apply diversification strategies in the crypto space.

This article will explore diversifying your crypto portfolio and provide strategies to achieve this effect.

See also: How AI is Transforming the Investment Sector

Types of Cryptocurrencies:

When diversifying a crypto portfolio, it is essential to consider different types of cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin and Ethereum are well-known, but there are numerous others worth exploring. An app called the immediate connect is now available for easier trading for these cryptocurrencies. Instead of manual, you can do lots of work easier with this app. 

It is essential to differentiate cryptocurrencies based on factors such as market capitalization, utility, and underlying technology. 

This understanding enables investors to decide which cryptocurrencies to include in their portfolios. Evaluating the potential of emerging cryptocurrencies can provide opportunities for growth.

Diversification Strategies:

Spreading investments across different cryptocurrencies is a primary diversification strategy. One approach is to allocate funds based on market dominance, investing in a combination of well-established cryptocurrencies and those with significant market share. 

It is also essential to consider risk appetite and long-term goals when diversifying your portfolio. Balancing high-risk investments with more stable options can help achieve a healthy risk-reward ratio.

Incorporating different categories of cryptocurrencies is another effective strategy. Large-cap, mid-cap, and small-cap cryptocurrencies perform differently in various market conditions. By diversifying across these categories, investors can balance risk and potential returns. Exploring utility tokens and platform-specific tokens can provide exposure to different blockchain ecosystems and diversify your investment across different sectors of the crypto market.

Risk Management:

While diversification reduces risk, it is crucial to implement risk management techniques in your crypto portfolio. Assessing the correlation between cryptocurrencies helps determine how assets move relative to each other. By diversifying across cryptocurrencies with low correlation, investors can potentially reduce the impact of market volatility.

Implementing risk management tools, such as stop-loss orders and trailing stops, can protect investments from significant losses. These tools automatically trigger a sale if the price of a cryptocurrency drops below a predetermined level, limiting potential losses.

Evaluating Crypto Investments

Thorough research is crucial when selecting cryptocurrencies for your portfolio. Analyzing the projects and teams behind cryptocurrencies helps assess their potential for success. Understanding market trends and adoption potential can provide insights into the growth prospects of different cryptocurrencies.

Evaluating fundamental and technical indicators is essential for making informed investment decisions. Fundamental analysis involves assessing factors such as the project’s technology, use case, and competitive advantage. Technical analysis, on the other hand, involves studying price patterns and market trends to identify potential entry and exit points.

Importance of Due Diligence

Due diligence plays a crucial role in protecting your crypto investments. Conducting background checks on exchanges and wallets ensures that your funds are held in secure and reputable platforms. Implementing strong security measures, such as two-factor authentication and hardware wallets, enhances the safety of your crypto assets.

Furthermore, it is essential to be cautious of scams and fraudulent projects that can lead to significant financial losses. Researching and verifying the legitimacy of projects before investing is crucial in the crypto space, where scams and fraudulent schemes are prevalent.

Long-Term Perspective

Lastly, it is important to approach crypto investments with a long-term perspective. The crypto market is highly volatile, and short-term price fluctuations are common. Setting realistic expectations for returns and holding investments for the long term can help capture the potential growth of the market and minimize the impact of short-term market volatility.

What makes portfolio diversification an essential step in crypto investing?

Diversification is a fundamental principle in investment strategies, and it holds equal significance in the world of crypto investments. Whether beginners or experts, all investors should understand the benefits of portfolio diversification to mitigate risks and optimize returns. 

Overcome price volatility and capital preservation

The crypto market is highly volatile, and individual cryptocurrencies can experience significant price fluctuations. By diversifying, investors reduce their exposure to the risks associated with any single asset. If one cryptocurrency underperforms, the impact on the overall portfolio is minimized as the gains from other investments can offset the losses.

Crypto investments carry inherent risks, and preserving capital should be a priority for both beginners and experts. Diversification plays a crucial role in safeguarding investments against potential losses. By allocating funds across various cryptocurrencies, investors reduce the risk of significant capital erosion if a particular asset performs poorly or fails. Preserving capital ensures investors have the financial resources to take advantage of future opportunities or withstand market downturns.

Expanding investment opportunities and hedge against the fast pace of the market

Diversification opens doors to a broader range of investment opportunities within the crypto market. Different cryptocurrencies possess unique characteristics, technologies, and potential for growth. By diversifying, investors gain exposure to various projects, sectors, and blockchain ecosystems. This expansion of opportunities allows individuals to capitalize on the growth potential of different cryptocurrencies, diversify their income streams, and potentially increase their chances of earning substantial returns.

By investing in cryptocurrencies with varying degrees of volatility, investors can balance out the overall portfolio risk. Stablecoins or less volatile cryptocurrencies can act as a buffer during times of market turbulence, while higher-risk assets offer the potential for significant returns in bullish market conditions. Diversification helps protect against the negative impact of extreme price swings and provides a more stable investment experience.

Potential benefits in the future:

Diversifying a crypto portfolio reduces the reliance on individual cryptocurrencies, which may be subject to short-term market trends or temporary setbacks. As the crypto industry continues to evolve, new projects and technologies emerge. Diversification allows investors to participate in this growth, potentially benefiting from the success of promising projects and innovative blockchain solutions.

Conclusion

Diversifying your crypto portfolio is crucial for managing risk and maximizing potential returns in the crypto market. By spreading investments across different cryptocurrencies, incorporating various categories of cryptocurrencies, and implementing risk management techniques, investors can achieve a balanced and resilient portfolio. 

Thorough research, due diligence, and a long-term perspective are vital for making informed investment decisions. Remember, the crypto market is ever-evolving, so continuous learning and adaptation are key to staying ahead.

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Cryptocurrency, a digital or virtual currency, has gained significant popularity in recent years. As more people enter the crypto market, it becomes crucial to understand its inherent dynamics, particularly market cycles. 

The crypto market is known for its volatility, and comprehending market cycles can help investors make informed decisions and mitigate risks.

What are Market Cycles?

Market cycles refer to the recurring patterns of price movements and investor sentiments within a specific market. In the crypto market, these cycles are influenced by various factors, including market demand, investor behavior, regulatory developments, and technological advancements.

Understanding market cycles can provide insights into when to enter, exit, or hold cryptocurrency investments.

The Stages of a Crypto Market Cycle

• Accumulation Phase: The accumulation phase occurs when prices are relatively low, and smart investors start accumulating cryptocurrencies. During this phase, prices may remain stagnant or experience minor fluctuations. Investor behavior is characterized by patience and strategic accumulation.
• Markup Phase: The markup phase signifies a bullish market sentiment and significant price appreciation. As positive news and market optimism increase, more investors enter the market, driving prices upward. A surge in trading volume and media attention often accompanies this phase.
• Distribution Phase: The distribution phase marks a potential market peak. Prices reach their highest levels as early investors and institutions sell their holdings to realize profits. Investor sentiment starts shifting, and signs of potential market reversal emerge.
• Markdown Phase: The markdown phase represents a bearish market sentiment and price decline. Prices experience a downward trend as selling pressure exceeds buying demand. Investor sentiment becomes negative, and panic selling can lead to sharp price drops.

Analyzing Past Crypto Market Cycles

A case study of Bitcoin’s market cycles provides valuable insights. Bitcoin, the pioneering cryptocurrency, has witnessed multiple cycles since its inception. Analyzing historical price performance reveals recurring patterns and trends. 

The duration and magnitude of each cycle can vary, but understanding past cycles can help identify potential future trends. For the easier hidden market analysis, ethereum code automated app can be a great help nowadays. 

Lessons Learned from Previous Cycles

We learn the importance of a long-term investment approach from previous market cycles. Holding onto investments, commonly known as HODLing, during volatile periods can yield significant returns over time. 

Dollar-cost averaging, investing a fixed amount regularly regardless of price fluctuations, can help mitigate the impact of market volatility.

Strategies for Navigating Crypto Market Cycles

Long-term investment strategies should be complemented by short-term trading approaches. Identifying short-term market trends through technical analysis indicators can aid in making informed trading decisions. 

Traders can utilize tools such as moving averages, relative strength index (RSI), and Bollinger Bands to assess price momentum and potential entry or exit points.

Risks and Challenges in Crypto Market Cycles

The crypto market’s inherent volatility poses risks and challenges. Sudden price fluctuations can lead to substantial gains or losses. Emotional biases, such as fear of missing out (FOMO) or fear of losing out (FOLO), can drive irrational investment decisions. Regulatory and legal uncertainties surrounding cryptocurrencies can impact market sentiment and performance.

Key Indicators to Monitor during Market Cycles

Monitoring trading volume and liquidity is crucial for understanding market trends. High trading volume indicates increased market participation, while low liquidity can lead to price manipulation. 

Market sentiment indicators, such as social media sentiment analysis and surveys, provide insights into investor emotions and expectations. Fundamental analysis, including evaluating a cryptocurrency’s technology, adoption, and team, can also aid in identifying potential winners.

The Future of Crypto Market Cycles

As the crypto market continues to evolve, market cycles are expected to persist. The increasing involvement of institutional investors, such as hedge funds and corporations, can bring stability and liquidity to the market. 

Regulatory challenges and technological advancements, such as the emergence of decentralized finance (DeFi) and central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), may introduce new complexities and opportunities.

Five risks of misunderstanding crypto market cycles

Crypto market cycles are the patterns of price movements that cryptocurrencies undergo over time, and understanding them is crucial for investors and traders in the cryptocurrency space. On the other hand, misunderstanding them can pose significant risks.

1. Emotional Decision-Making: When investors misinterpret the market cycle and expect a continuous upward trend, they may become overly optimistic and make impulsive investment decisions. Conversely, if they misunderstand the cycle and expect an extended bear market, fear can drive them to panic sell or exit the market prematurely. Emotional decision-making based on a misinterpretation of market cycles can result in significant losses and missed opportunities.
2. Overexposure and Lack of Diversification: Investors who fail to recognize the signs of an approaching downturn may continue to allocate a significant portion of their portfolio to a particular cryptocurrency or asset class. In such cases, if the market turns bearish, their entire portfolio can suffer severe losses. Diversification, a key risk management strategy, is often neglected when investors misinterpret market cycles and fail to adapt their investment strategies accordingly.
3. Missed Buying or Selling Opportunities: Misinterpreting market cycles may cause investors to miss potential entry points during a bear market or fail to recognize the signs of an approaching peak during a bull market. This can result in missed opportunities to buy at lower prices or take profits when the market is overheated. Failing to capitalize on these opportunities can hinder portfolio growth and overall investment performance.
4. Long-Term Investment Strategy: Some investors may mistakenly interpret a short-term bear market as a sign of a long-term decline in the value of cryptocurrencies. This misperception can lead them to abandon their long-term investment goals and prematurely exit the market. However, cryptocurrencies have historically experienced significant price recoveries after bear markets, making a long-term investment strategy potentially rewarding for those who understand the cyclical nature of the market.
5. Trading Losses: Traders who fail to recognize the transition from a bullish to a bearish phase may continue to enter positions based on outdated expectations, leading to repeated losses. Additionally, traders may misinterpret the duration and intensity of market cycles, resulting in mistimed trades and reduced profitability. A thorough understanding of market cycles is crucial for implementing effective trading strategies and risk management techniques.

Conclusion

Understanding crypto market cycles is essential for navigating the volatile world of cryptocurrencies. By studying historical patterns, employing long-term investment strategies, and utilizing technical analysis tools, investors can make more informed decisions. 

While risks and challenges persist, continual learning and adaptation are key to thriving in the ever-changing crypto landscape. By embracing these principles, investors can position themselves for success in the dynamic world of cryptocurrencies.

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Technology and innovation are nothing new to the entertainment business. Hollywood has always been at the forefront of the use of innovative techniques and technologies to create engaging media, from the advent of sound to the development of computer-generated imagery. However, the recent boom in AI has raised alarm bells among working performers who worry that their jobs are at risk from new technologies. The effects of AI on the entertainment industry and the actors’ reactions to them will be discussed in this article.

The field of entertainment has seen major AI advancements in recent years. Images, videos, and even written text can now be generated by AI algorithms that look and sound almost as good as anything made by a human. Some movies and TV shows have already made use of this technology to make the actors look younger, such as The Mandalorian and The Irishman.

Synthetic voices and faces are also being developed with the help of AI. DALL-E, an artificial intelligence program, can create pictures of inanimate objects, and GPT-3 can write text that sounds human. All-new characters can be made with these tools, or actors can be cast in specific roles.

Actors and performers are worried about the increasing prevalence of AI in the entertainment industry. They worry that their jobs could be automated away and become obsolete. This is a valid concern because there are currently available artificial intelligence-based tools capable of producing photo- and text-realistic outputs. One well-known AI-based chatbot that can simulate human conversation is ChatGPT.

The use of their digital likenesses has also raised concerns among actors. The development of deepfake technology has allowed for the production of fake videos and photographs of nonexistent individuals. This tech could be used to produce maliciously misleading videos featuring actors.

Actors in Hollywood have gone on strike over their fears of being replaced by artificial intelligence. The WGA has been joined in their demand for AI regulations to protect writers and their works by the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA).

More than two months have passed since the strike began, and neither side is willing to budge. The Writers Guild of America and the Screen Actors Guild have made it clear that they do not want their members’ contractually protected works to be used in the training of artificial intelligence.

The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, the trade group representing Hollywood studios, has offered actors a “groundbreaking AI proposal” to safeguard their digital likenesses. This proposal includes a demand for actors’ approval before any digital replicas or alterations of their performances can be made. SAG-AFTRA, however, has rejected this proposal on the grounds that it does not go far enough to protect the rights of actors.

Hollywood’s directors’ union, the Director’s Guild of America (DGA), has successfully negotiated AI safeguards into its contract. According to the DGA’s official position, “duties performed by DGA members must be assigned to a person,” and “generative artificial intelligence does not constitute a person.” This safeguard prevents the use of AI-based tools that could otherwise replace board members.

Some artists in the entertainment industry have taken legal action against AI. Sarah Silverman, a comedian, and two authors have sued OpenAI and Facebook parent company Meta for copyright infringement.

Legal action has been taken against both defendants on the grounds that they illegally copied and distributed summaries of the plaintiffs’ books. This legal battle illustrates the growing anxiety among artists about the possibility of their work being copied and remixed by software powered by artificial intelligence.

Hollywood’s embrace of AI is a trend that’s not going away anytime soon. Tools based on artificial intelligence (AI) are already widely used in the entertainment industry, and their prevalence is only expected to grow as technology advances. But that doesn’t mean acting is going away any time soon.

Instead, performers will need to adjust to the new realities of the business. They may need to acquire new abilities, such as the ability to use tools powered by AI, in order to maintain their relevance. It’s possible they’ll also have to work out more favorable terms for the use of their digital likenesses in contracts.

In conclusion, actors and entertainers are worried that their jobs will be automated away due to the proliferation of AI in the entertainment industry. But that doesn’t mean acting is going away any time soon. Instead, they need to adjust to the new realities of their field and work harder to secure favorable contractual protections for themselves.

As artists fight to prevent the unauthorized use of their work, the legal fight against AI-based tools is likely to continue. Tools based on artificial intelligence (AI) are already widely used in the entertainment industry, and their prevalence is only expected to grow as technology advances. Nonetheless, this won’t make the need for actors and performers obsolete. Instead, they need to accept the new Hollywood reality in the age of AI and make the necessary adjustments.

First reported on NBC News

Frequently Asked Questions

Q1: How has AI impacted the entertainment industry?

AI has brought significant advancements to the entertainment industry. It enables the creation of realistic images, videos, and text that rival human-made content. Movies and TV shows have used AI to make actors appear younger, and AI algorithms can generate synthetic voices and faces. These technologies have the potential to reshape the industry and create new possibilities for character creation and storytelling.

Q2: What concerns do actors have regarding AI in the entertainment industry?

Actors are concerned about the automation of their jobs and the potential obsolescence of their roles due to AI. The ability of AI to generate photo- and text-realistic outputs raises worries that their performances could be replicated or replaced by AI-generated content. The use of deepfake technology has also raised concerns about the unauthorized use of actors’ digital likenesses in misleading or malicious ways.

Q3: What actions have actors taken in response to AI in the industry?

Actors have gone on strike, demanding AI regulations to protect their rights and works. Organizations like the Writers Guild of America (WGA) and the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) have joined forces to advocate for AI regulations. The negotiation between the industry trade group, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, and the actors’ unions has been ongoing, with disputes over the protection of actors’ digital likenesses and their approval rights.

Q4: What safeguards have been negotiated for directors in relation to AI?

The Director’s Guild of America (DGA) has successfully negotiated safeguards into its contract to address AI concerns. The DGA stipulates that duties performed by its members must be assigned to a person, stating that “generative artificial intelligence does not constitute a person.” This provision helps prevent the replacement of directors with AI-based tools.

Q5: Are there legal battles concerning AI in the entertainment industry?

Yes, legal action has been taken by artists against companies involved in AI. Comedian Sarah Silverman and two authors have sued OpenAI and Facebook’s parent company, Meta, for copyright infringement. They allege that the defendants illegally copied and distributed summaries of their books, highlighting concerns about the unauthorized use and remixing of their work by AI-powered software.

Q6: How should actors adapt to the growing presence of AI in the industry?

Actors need to adjust to the new realities of the industry by acquiring new skills and adapting to the use of AI-powered tools. Embracing AI and understanding its applications can help actors remain relevant and navigate the changing landscape. Additionally, securing favorable contractual protections for the use of their digital likenesses is essential in safeguarding their rights and interests.

Q7: Will acting be replaced by AI in the entertainment industry?

While AI is transforming the industry, acting is not expected to be completely replaced. The human element, emotions, and creativity that actors bring to their performances are still highly valued. However, actors need to adapt and embrace the opportunities that AI brings, collaborating with technology to enhance storytelling and create innovative experiences.

Q8: What is the future outlook for AI in the entertainment industry?

AI’s role in the entertainment industry is expected to continue growing as technology advances. AI-powered tools are already widely used and are likely to become more prevalent. It will be crucial for artists to strike a balance between embracing AI’s potential and protecting their rights and creative works. The industry will continue to navigate the challenges and opportunities presented by AI in the pursuit of innovative and engaging entertainment experiences.

Featured Image Credit: Unsplash

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