According to a recent survey conducted by KPMG, released May 25, 2023, the impact of generative AI on business operations is rapidly growing, with profound implications for the workforce. “The survey findings reveal that a substantial 72% of respondents believe that GenAI has the potential to significantly enhance productivity within their organizations. Additionally, 66% of participants anticipate a transformation in the future work landscape, while 62% recognize the ability of AI to stimulate innovation and facilitate the development of novel products and services.”

A May 24, 2023, article in FM Financial Management magazine, written by Hugo Johnson-Driscoll, says that whether it's data mining, predictive modelling, or a blend of both, companies increasingly rely on data analytics to pinpoint relevant data patterns, trends and projections to scale up commercial operations and increase profitability.

As big data proliferates, companies (and the data scientists they employ) are using predictive analytics technologies to forecast future cash flows, decrease costs, reduce the likelihood of fraud and even improve employee welfare by eliminating some manual tasks in their organization.

So says Nvidia’s Chief Executive Jensen Huang in an article on the CNBC webpage, adding that this is because generative artificial intelligence will understand multiple forms of input, including speech. “AI will not only be able to create new applications, but enhance existing ones,” he said during his keynote speech at the Computex forum in Taiwan May 30, 2023.

In a recent post on its webpage, PwC Global points out that “generative AI is poised to revolutionize how we work, live and interact. It's clear that we are now at a tipping point. Generative AI will change business models and how work gets done and, in the process, reinvent entire industries. AI could contribute up to $15.7 trillion to the global economy in 2030. And it will also allow us to build trust and deliver sustained outcomes for clients and stakeholders.”

A recent blog on the Entrepreneur webpage focuses on how to make livelier presentations, critical part of professional and educational settings. “Whether you are pitching a new project, delivering a report or teaching a lesson, your presentation design can make or break your message. So, you must hit the nail on the head with every presentation you make,” writes Vikas Agrawal

The past two years have reshaped accounting firms of all sizes. Over eight out of 10 firms are offering nontraditional services, says the newly released 2023-2024 Marketing Budget Benchmark Study. The study examines how High Growth Firms (HGFs) managed to post an average annual growth rate of 29% – up to five times that of their slower growing peers – in a forbidding business environment marked by turbulence and uncertainty.

An article posted on the CNBC website Mat 14, 2023, written by Ian Thomas, points out that he political debate around corporate focus on environmental, social and governance issues is nowhere near over, but more C-suites and corporate boards are putting their own money where their mouths are when it comes to the importance of these strategies. Companies are increasingly linking ESG metrics to executive compensation packages.

Echoing another article I recently posted in my Hey! What’s New? column, an article in The New Yorker, written by Matthew Hutson, points out that “increasingly, we’re surrounded by fake people. Sometimes we know it and sometimes we don’t. They offer us customer service on Web sites, target us in video games, and fill our social-media feeds; they trade stocks and, with the help of systems such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT, can write essays, articles, and e-mails. By no means are these AI systems up to all the tasks expected of a full-fledged person. But they excel in certain domains, and they’re branching out.”

According to an article in Scientific American, written by George Musser, no one yet knows how ChatGPT and its artificial intelligence cousins will transform the world, and one reason is that no one really knows what goes on inside them. “Some of these systems’ abilities go far beyond what they were trained to do – and even their inventors are baffled as to why. A growing number of tests suggest these AI systems develop internal models of the real world, much as our own brain does, though the machines’ technique is different.”

A World Economic Forum report predicts an overall decline in jobs; it also shows that artificial intelligence will create more jobs than it eliminates by 2027. An article in FM Financial Management written by Bryan Strickland, says that a recent global survey report predicts that the job market will shrink over the next five years, but artificial intelligence (AI) actually ranks high among the growth industries that could create opportunities for displaced workers.

The Future of Jobs Report 2023, a 296-page report recently released by the World Economic Forum, projects that the global economy will lose 14 million jobs over the five years, a number that represents 2% of the current workforce.