Op-ed

Business payments have evolved rapidly over the last two decades, allowing SMEs to move money more simply. Fintechs in particular have led the charge on emerging tech that allow businesses to operate with ease, but despite progress, there is still work to be done. As more businesses look to expand both domestically and abroad in 2023, organisations will need to respond swiftly to some of the key challenges that small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs) face when it comes to business payments. Here are three of the key tech trends that business-facing organisations should be paying attention to this year.  

Connected, Autonomous, Shared, and Electric (CASE) Vehicles will be the future of automotive. While govts are more focused on EVs, other smart vehicle markets are growing too. Modern vehicles have up to 100 million lines of code and these are mostly based on open source, making it difficult for IT teams to track. There are already clear instances of cybercriminals looking into the auto industry like the Tesla exploit and Jeep attack etc.

The number one challenge facing Human Resources (HR) leaders today: Employee mental health. HR leaders from Accenture, Allianz, Wellbeing at Work, Sterning HR and Humanify HR share their top learnings and challenges, and mental health is at the top of the list. Coming off the back of a worldwide pandemic, lockdowns, homeschooling, working from home, and hybrid work … the past few years have been times of intense change. “The job of the human resources professional has been profoundly difficult over the last two and a half years. And it's not just because of the constant change, it's actually managing the health of the organisation,” shares Emma Egan, Managing Partner of Sterning HR.

In the three months since the Consumer Data Right (CDR) went live for the energy sector, Adatree – Australia’s market-leading Open Data intermediary, – believes the initial interest shown by energy retailers and hardware providers indicates an industry that’s hungry for more innovative solutions to keep them relevant in a changing and competitive market.

Last Friday, the popular social news and discussion platform, Reddit revealed that they were a victim of a phishing attack, and had their systems breached. Reddit confirms that hackers had gained access to its internal dashboards and business systems. They claim that no user passwords or accounts were accessed, but is urging their users to set up their 2FA to secure their accounts. Investigations are still ongoing. Synopsys security experts weigh in on this incident. Their full comments are below.

Super Bowl, te amo. But what’s happened to you? As your halftime shows get better - Rihanna had better deliver - your ads seem to have become, well, super stale. If last year was Crypto Bowl, this year is Celebrity Hole. Every brand is taking shelter under the umbrella of celebrity and humour. No disputing that we’ve found love in amusing celeb ads; I’ve worked on a few myself. No denying that celebs in ads - when done right - drive impact. And there’s no doubt that the Super Bowl is historically all those things wrapped up. 

Game-changing tech like artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) can drive high value customer experiences for business, and raise the stakes when it comes to competitive advantage. Yet, even with broadscale access to these capabilities, many Australian organisations are only scratching the surface when it comes to realising their potential.

Modern software apps simply would not exist, or be as powerful, without the use of open source software (OSS). Developers design OSS with source code that is accessible for anyone to modify and learn from, and they release the code with specific licensing rights. Open source software (OSS) easily integrates with other code, enabling developers using it for their own applications to focus on their core strengths and on building innovative and creative solutions for their enterprise and its customers. But developers are often not aware of all the open source components and dependencies it adds to their own software.

Are declining property values the nail in the coffin for Australia's property boom? Hardly. The recent price fall is the first stage of a skydive: controlled and with safeguards in place. The initial drop is fast and exhilarating. Property values have fallen 8.6% since the start of the RBA's rate hikes in May. But things won't last. Without structural shakeups, the Australian property market will deploy its parachute and slow its fall until it hits the ground. Softly.

As AI-powered chatbots edge into the education sector, teachers should to take an active role in testing and using these cutting-edge tools to maintain a competitive edge in their profession. This follows a strict banning of ChatGPT in WA, NSW, Queensland, and Tasmania. Internationally, ChatGPT is banned in school districts across the US, France, and India.