5 must reads for your weekend

We keep our ear to the ground for the interesting stats, insights and discussion points you need to feel in the know.

1. Will there be a ‘techlash’??

Creativity is no longer a uniquely human endeavor. Want to create a brand? Create a new video game? Write a song? ChatGPT, and its successor GPT-4, can do it for you in seconds. What does this mean for the creative industry? Jobs focused on delivering content - writing, creating and coding - now seem likely to be uniquely affected by generative AI. Will we see an explosion of AI-assisted innovation? Will humans maintain their competitive advantage against algorithmic competition - or might authentic human creativity be crowded out? Will “human-made” content then command a premium? One plausible effect of being inundated with synthetic creative outputs, is that people will begin to value authentic creativity more again and may be willing to pay a premium for it. We propose three possible - but, importantly, not mutually exclusive - scenarios for how generative AI might unfold. And vitally, what companies can do today to prepare for this brave new world.?

How Generative AI Could Disrupt Creative Work ?

2. Pointing fingers

Investors and the companies they invest in, don’t see eye to eye on ESG reporting. According to the EY Europe Long-Term Value and Corporate Governance Survey 2023 , 78% of surveyed business leaders believe the companies they invest in should address sustainability issues even if it reduces profits in the short term. Moreover, 64% of business leaders reported ”facing short-term earning pressure from investors, which impedes our longer-term investments in sustainability”. So what can be done? The first step for those trying to argue for more ESG priorities within their company is to “remove blame”, according to Julie Teigland, EY EMEIA Area Managing Partner. Not all businesses can sustain the shock of rising prices while waiting for long-term investments to pay out. Investors want to hear better arguments too; 80% of surveyed business leaders backed the response: ”Too many companies fail to properly articulate the rationale for long-term investments in sustainability.?

EU Influence: Foreign agents act fears — Internal lobbying — Belgian presidency primer

3. Championing women in FinTech

70% of senior men had a positive view of the UK FinTech industry’s diversity and inclusion performance. According to the same 2022 EY survey of 240 industry workers of all seniority levels, only 30% of women shared the same sentiment. This finding sheds light on why female-founded and female-led FinTechs continue to attract a higher proportion of female workers than male-founded ones. When we asked Innovate Finance Women in FinTech Powerlist nominees to select the biggest obstacles they’d faced as a woman, “lack of recognition for my contribution” and “non-transparent promotion and progression process” were the top two answers, far ahead of “discrimination” and “unavailable promotions.” It’s clearly time to level the playing field for women in FinTech. So here’s how to raise the profile of female leaders and create more accessible paths for career advancement.?

How to champion equality and career progression for women in FinTech

4. Leading with heart??

Empathy is a critical trait for effective leadership, one that involves cultivating people on your team and providing them with opportunities to grow and develop their skills. As Mike Lee, the EY Global Wealth & Asset Management Leader, says, “it's not just about you” - true empathy means putting yourself in someone else's shoes. Several years ago, Mike learned the value of empathy firsthand when a colleague approached him about a difficult personal situation. Her first child had been found to be neurodivergent, and she was struggling to balance her work and personal responsibilities. Mike's response was simple: "We'll work it out together." The key was the transparency of the discussion, being able to share similar experiences and leveraging others (including Mike’s wife) to help bring perspectives to manage the situation. Mike’s colleague continues to share her story and has recently won a leadership award for her work in the local community. She has openly shared that managing through the challenge of being the parent of a neurodivergent child, has helped her become a better empathetic leader.?

Empathetic leadership: creating a winning culture? ??

5. The quantum revolution

Quantum computing promises to transform the world. According to the EY Quantum Readiness Survey 2022, quantum is poised to be a leading driver of global transformation within the next five to 10 years, with 81% of UK businesses already anticipating widespread industry disruption from quantum by 2030. This may surprise you, considering quantum’s current lack of maturity, but with the combination of recent quantum successes and a clearer path toward commercialization, it possesses significant potential for transformation. But how? One example is that, for particular use cases, quantum computing has already surpassed the most advanced conventional supercomputers, solving problems that would take binary devices thousands, if not millions of years to process. According to says Beatriz Sanz Saiz, EY Global Consulting Data and Analytics Leader, “quantum may not be here at scale yet and there is still much that is not completely understood, but nevertheless, powerful use-cases are emerging almost every day.” So, what steps should leaders take to prepare for the quantum revolution??

Quantum computing: 5 steps to take now ?

If you do one thing:

Tag an empathetic colleague, friend of family member and show them just how much you appreciate them.?

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