In Depth

In Depth

Artificial intelligence, automation and robotics

• Trust and openness vital to get benefits from supply chain automation

  Supply chain automation is benefiting from new technological developments, such as blockchain, 5G and machine learning – as companies such as Maersk, Opel and Nestlé are proving  Continue Reading

• Shell CTO Yuri Sebregts talks about using AI to amplify the human impact of its workforce

  Digital transformation is a multi-decade process for Shell, with artificial intelligence presenting the oil and gas giant with new opportunities to ramp up the productivity of its workforce, its CTO explains  Continue Reading

• Intelligent automation and the WAN: Is SD-WAN moving mainstream?

  Take-up of software-defined networking in corporates is slower than expected. Where have we reached on the journey to software-controlled networks – and SD-WAN in particular – becoming the norm?  Continue Reading

• Doorstep challenge: How retailers are innovating on delivery and fulfilment

  Every retailer selling online in 2018 needs great shipping options for customers who have got used to an expanding list of choices. How are some retailers developing the proposition, and where does technology fit into the equation?  Continue Reading

• How is Google taking on Microsoft Office in retail?

  Carrefour represents a big-name contract win for Google’s G Suite, but will Microsoft Office still be dominant across retail?  Continue Reading

• The use cases, challenges and benefits behind retail AI

  Retailers have been collecting customer data for years, and with AI technology now available to help them use it effectively, they’re jumping at the chance – but what challenges lie ahead?  Continue Reading

• Nigel Shadbolt on why the UK is well placed to lead on the ethics of AI

  Nigel Shadbolt, principal of Jesus College, Oxford and co-founder of the Open Data Institute, underscores the ethics of artificial intelligence, and says it will shape the naked ape as tools always have  Continue Reading

• Interview: Dame Stephanie ‘Steve’ Shirley: 'Scared silly' by Brexit

  Renowned entrepreneur and philanthropist Steve Shirley talks robots teaching children, and why Brexit has her “scared silly”  Continue Reading

• Future tech cannot be ‘defined by a particular population’, says CA executive

  As new technologies are developed, companies could take the opportunity to hire more diversely to ensure offerings cater to a wider demographic  Continue Reading

• Streamline infrastructure management through robotic automation

  Robotic automation is changing the infrastructure management game, helping IT departments make fewer mistakes and boost their productivity  Continue Reading

• Enhance efficiency by automating IT services

  We look at the role of artificial intelligence and chatbots in IT service management  Continue Reading

• Why AI must move beyond pattern-matching

  Artificial intelligence and deep learning have revolutionised applications such as computer vision, but more complex problems require a different approach  Continue Reading

• Let automation take away the tedium

  Computer Weekly looks at how far the suppliers of systems management tools and associated products have progressed with automation  Continue Reading

• Manufacturers, technology and the fourth industrial revolution

  A look at some of the innovations and technology investment focus areas for today’s manufacturing industry  Continue Reading

• Ethical AI requires collaboration and framework development

  Countries and companies are attending to the ethics of artificial intelligence technology use. Such efforts need to be collectively determined to result in solid frameworks  Continue Reading

• IPsoft’s digital worker is part of a shift in human productivity

  IPsoft used its annual user summit to allow customers to update themselves on the career of its cognitive digital agent Amelia  Continue Reading

• Canada’s tech sector is targeting Europe – does it have what it takes to compete?

  Following its free-trade agreement with the EU – and the contrast with its noisy neighbour – Canada is promoting its tech sector to European IT buyers. We take a look at what CIOs can expect  Continue Reading

• AI elevates predictive maintenance for Kone and ThyssenKrupp

  Kone and ThyssenKrupp are using artificial intelligence to improve predictive maintenance of their lifts and escalators  Continue Reading

• How artificial intelligence is fuelling engine maintenance innovation at Rolls-Royce

  The engine maker has established an innovation centre to enable the company to deliver analytics and artificial intelligence-powered services to airlines using Rolls-Royce engines  Continue Reading

• CW500: The advent of AI

  For better or worse, artificial intelligence is one of the most talked-about technologies today, and it is here to stay. The latest CW500 Club investigated what AI actually is and the opportunities it can offer  Continue Reading

• Chatbots demonstrate unexpected range of uses, from mental health to education

  Chatbots, software that uses normal language to communicate with people through text or voice, are proving their value in a surprising variety of ways – from accountancy support to mental health  Continue Reading

• Enterprise accessibility: How Cray is using HPC to open up AI use cases from the datacentre

  Enterprises interest in HPC is reportedly being fuelled by the rising demand for artificial intelligence-based applications and services, and Cray is one of a number of providers looking to cash in  Continue Reading

• Siemens success sets the scene for growth in process mining

  German industrial conglomerate Siemens has turned to process mining to reveal inefficiencies in the way it pays suppliers, organises logistics and runs order-to-cash processes  Continue Reading

• Silicon Valley startups pitch in to the remaking of corporate IT

  Enterprise IT is being remade by DevOps, cloud, containerisation and the incursion of AI. We look at one group of Silicon Valley-based suppliers attacking different vectors of new model IT  Continue Reading

• How artificial intelligence can aid and replace higher order human creativity

  Much is made of AI augmenting human intelligence with simple automation, but might higher order human creativity go the same way?  Continue Reading

• Assessing the disparate initiatives tackling the UK’s technology skills gap

  As the UK’s skills gap widens, initiatives aim to ensure the population has the skills needed for roles now and in the future, but are these disparate efforts helping or hindering the cause?  Continue Reading

• Customer analytics applications add artificial intelligence to reduce market ‘friction’

  Customer analytics applications developers are seeking to add layers of intelligence to improve sellers’ interactions with buyers  Continue Reading

• Machines delve deep into customer minds

  Deep learning can help customer insight teams advance rapidly in their mission to understand their customers  Continue Reading

• What are the retail jobs that don’t exist yet?

  As in many industries, technology and new consumer behaviour is changing the shape of retail. But what yet-to-be-created jobs are on the horizon for the sector?  Continue Reading

• Data Lab CEO Gillian Docherty on how data can boost Scottish economy

  Gillian Docherty, CEO of The Data Lab, outlines the organisation’s mission to turn analytics and artificial intelligence to benefit Scotland’s economy  Continue Reading

• How AI will underpin cyber security in the next few years

  Cyber security risks are growing in complexity and volume, but artificial intelligence techniques can help businesses track and fight them in real time  Continue Reading

• Are you human? How to defeat the bots in e-commerce

  Theatres and other entertainment venues are in a constant war with ticket fraudsters commanding botnet armies, as are other purveyors of high-value, limited-edition goods  Continue Reading

• Shell downstream CIO Craig Walker: Invest time in your team

  Craig Walker, CIO for Shell’s global downstream business, says IT leaders need to invest time in their teams and take them and the business on any change journey  Continue Reading

• Smart speakers open new windows into customer behaviour for CRM

  Voice recognition has become a new frontier for customer relationship management. What does the new voice channel mean for understanding consumers and how will voice data integrate with existing customer intelligence?  Continue Reading

• How Southeast Asia is keeping pace with AI

  Forward-looking organisations in the region are embracing artificial intelligence, but uneven access to connectivity and a lack of skills and understanding of the technology are holding back wider adoption  Continue Reading

• The death of the mainframe is greatly exaggerated, says CA

  With mainframe software tools forming a key part of its overall growth strategy, CA Technologies remains proud of its mainframe heritage  Continue Reading

• Is the Budget enough to drive post-Brexit success for UK?

  The chancellor has delivered an innovation and technology-laden Budget, but has it eased the tech industry’s fears about Brexit?  Continue Reading

• ASEAN firms warming up to enterprise mobility amid roadblocks

  From startups to postal companies, organisations across the ASEAN region see mobility as strategic to their businesses, even as they face headwinds such as security and talent shortages  Continue Reading

• Brexit uncertainty dominates UK’s digital conversation

  Uncertainty over the impact of Brexit dominated conversations at TechUK’s second annual Supercharging the Digital Economy event. Can technology really lessen the impact?  Continue Reading

• Digital twins: Revolutionising product businesses

  Among the technological drivers in industrial firms are IoT platforms that implement the concept of a digital twin. We explore the benefits  Continue Reading

• Gitex 2017: How can blockchain make you a happier person?

  An initiative underway at Avaya hopes to use blockchain networks to help make the citizens of Dubai happy  Continue Reading

• Is artificial intelligence hype sowing damaging confusion?

  IT vendors have leapt on the artificial intelligence/machine learning bandwagon, spreading a level of confusion that threatens potential technology benefits with AI washing  Continue Reading

• Ethical software development: Ask Uber and Volkswagen

  Following TfL's decision against Uber, we investigate the role of professionalism and ethics in software development  Continue Reading

• What is intent-based networking, and what can it do for your business?

  Beyond the marketing hype, does intent-based networking mean anything, and can it improve how your infrastructure runs?  Continue Reading

• SAS CEO Jim Goodnight: Today’s AI turbo-charged with MPP

  SAS co-founder and CEO Jim Goodnight says the value of the vogue for artificial intelligence lies in massively parallel computing, as well as cheaper storage  Continue Reading

• How AI can aid, not replace, humans in recruitment

  Artificial intelligence is gaining prominence in a number of industries and brings advantages and disadvantages in the field of recruitment  Continue Reading

• Donald Farmer: Why business models are ideological

  Donald Farmer is a well-respected figure in data analytics, with significant spells at Microsoft and Qlik. He is turning his mind to the ideologies that determine the character of companies  Continue Reading

• The correlation between creativity, diversity and the future tech workforce

  Many believe the UK computing curriculum should put more emphasis on creativity to prepare young people for an automated future  Continue Reading

• Staying ahead in the cyber arms race

  Darktrace’s Asia-Pacific managing director, Sanjay Aurora, offers insights on what organisations can do to reverse the odds against them in combatting cyber threats  Continue Reading

• Automated decision making shows worrying signs of limitation

  AI and data-driven decision making projects need to be handled with care – worrying limitations revealed in the law and healthcare  Continue Reading

• How logic games have advanced AI thinking

  Pitting a chess computer against a chess champion used to be the end goal for machine intelligence. We explore how game play has improved artificial intelligence  Continue Reading

• Data management: What does the future hold?

  We explore how firms are replacing transactional database management systems with new database architectures  Continue Reading

• Blockchain no longer held to ransom as business adoption increases

  The blockchain digital ledger technology that came to prominence with bitcoin is beginning to find uses in and beyond finance, including for urban cycling scheme Buzzbike  Continue Reading

• MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor speaks about ‘expanding universe’ of BI

  Co-founder and CEO of MicroStrategy takes the long view on business intelligence and sees its universe expanding with mobile technologies  Continue Reading

• Retailers urged to change approach to demand forecasting

  To achieve optimal fulfilment performance, retailers must now forecast how consumers will shop and understand the influences behind purchasing decisions  Continue Reading

• Virtual reality as a healthcare tool

  Virtual reality is being used as a treatment tool across healthcare, tackling issues such as mental health, phobias and chronic pain management  Continue Reading

• Business applications embrace IoT, blockchain to face future

  Next-generation ERP systems could intersect with IoT, blockchain and smart contracts to drive a new wave of automation aimed at operational efficiency  Continue Reading

• How will automation affect the IT skills gap?

  According to research, automation is putting some job roles at risk, but could it also be the answer to the growing IT skills gap?  Continue Reading

• Users should stay grounded while ERP suppliers take to the cloud

  User organisations are advised to keep their heads while suppliers show signs of cloud intoxication  Continue Reading

• Blockchain starts to prove its value outside of finance

  Technology behind bitcoin is being adopted in supply chains, power networks and even to support independent musicians  Continue Reading

• AI automation starts to transform legal profession

  Artificial intelligence and automation are making inroads into legal work, but are more likely to support than displace lawyers and will draw IT more into legal service delivery  Continue Reading

• The rise of the machines

  Artificial intelligence in various forms is not a panacea for every problem, but it can help enterprises fend off cyber attacks and get better at what they do  Continue Reading

• Silicon Valley startups aim to make big data capture and prep slicker

  A group of California-based startup and early-stage data analytics and management companies are bidding to make big data, including sensor data, more tractable for analysis  Continue Reading

• APAC banks warming up to big data

  Financial institutions in the APAC region fear they may be left behind if they don’t embrace big data  Continue Reading

• At IBM’s Watson lab, customers marry the power of AI with the IoT

  IBM formally inaugurated its Watson Internet of Things headquarters in Munich, Germany in February, and Computer Weekly went to meet the customers and partners who are using Watson AI to deliver on the promise of the IoT  Continue Reading

• Australia a hotbed for data analytics

  Market for technologies that help organisations make sense of vast volumes of data is hotting up Down Under  Continue Reading

• Big data projects need business input and careful management

  Big data projects need to be managed. Ocado and Graydon have been figuring out how  Continue Reading

• Saab CIO Mats Hultin says be open, flexible and agile – or die

  Saab CIO Mats Hultin is directing the Swedish defence company’s IT function globally to be streamlined and standardised, but open and flexible for a future that includes the internet of things  Continue Reading

• How artificial intelligence is powering retail customer experience

  Retailers are beginning to explore how cognitive computing and AI could make e-commerce smarter and more personalised  Continue Reading

• Hybrid cloud strategy offers best of both worlds

  More and more businesses are adopting a hybrid cloud strategy for their datacentre needs. Computer Weekly looks at what’s on offer  Continue Reading

• Neutron’s role evolves in OpenStack networks

  We examine the progress of Neutron, OpenStack’s cloud networking module  Continue Reading

• Digital transformation needs mainframe DevOps

  As organisations become more digital, CIOs must consider how best to tap into data held in mainframes  Continue Reading

• [email protected]: A history of IT outsourcing

  Computer Weekly looks at where and when IT outsourcing was invented and considers the changes the sector has gone through since  Continue Reading

• Does Microsoft Azure make sense for developers?

  Microsoft is betting heavily on cloud services for its future. We take a close look at its strategy as a platform for Office 365, Linux and microservices  Continue Reading

• For IBM, the answer is Watson. But what is the question?

  IBM is promoting its Watson natural language processing analytics technology as it tries to move its core business beyond technologies that it pioneered, but which have become commoditised. Will it fly?  Continue Reading

• Interview: How John Deere uses connectivity to make farms more efficient

  After pioneering the use of automated vehicle technology 15 years ago, farm equipment supplier John Deere is now going further, with its sights set on efficiency and sustainability, says sales VP Christoph Wigger  Continue Reading

• Microservices: Small parts with big advantages

  Microservices go hand in hand with containers and the idea of software portability – but how do they work and why should you care?  Continue Reading

• Inside DevOps: How it really works

  DevOps done well can lead to a continuous loop where teams plan, code, build, test, release, deploy, operate and monitor  Continue Reading

• DevOps spreads into mainstream corporate IT

  DevOps will shift from being a niche approach to application development and deployment, and move into the mainstream  Continue Reading

• The new world of automation

  Business process automation addresses the pace of change in the market by removing human entities wherever possible.  Continue Reading

• AI is a dream we shouldn't be having

  Robotics expert Noel Sharkey used to be a believer in artificial intelligence, but now thinks AI is a dangerous myth that could lead to a dystopian future of unintelligent, unfeeling robot carers and soldiers.  Continue Reading

• Industry warned it faces a "dire shortage of IT testers"

  The IT industry is facing a "dire shortage" of experienced testing professionals, according to testing specialist ImagoQA, which...  Continue Reading

• Can AIever be a business tool?

  Replicating the intelligence of the human brain remains an elusive business ideal, writes Brian Clegg  Continue Reading

• Robots will be the staff you can't afford

  Jim Mortleman explains how intelligent software robots will act as the army of staff you can't afford to hire to respond...  Continue Reading