July 03, 2024

Top 5 AI employee fears and how to combat them

“The artificial intelligence (AI) boom across all industries has fueled anxiety in the workforce, with employees fearing ethical usage, legal risks and job displacement,” EY said in its report. The future of work has shifted due to genAI in particular, enabling work to be done equally well and securely across remote, field, and office environments, according to EY. ... “We can say that the most common worry is that AI will impact an employee’s role – either making it obsolete entirely or changing it in a way which concerns the employee, For example, taking some of the challenge or excitement out of it,” Harris said. “And the point is, these perspectives are already having an impact – irrespective of what the future really holds.” Harris said in another Gartner survey, employees indicated they were less likely to stay with an organization due to concerns about AI-driven job loss. ... Organizations can also overcome employee AI fears and build trust by offering training or development on a range of topics, such as how AI works, how to create prompts and effectively use AI, and even how to evaluate AI output for biases or inaccuracies. And employees want to learn.

Importance of security-by-design for IT and OT systems in building a security resilient framework

Regular security testing, vulnerability assessments, penetration testing, and compliance audits are vital for identifying vulnerabilities and potential attack vectors. This proactive approach allows organizations to rectify weaknesses, enhance security posture, and protect their systems effectively. For OT systems, specialized testing methods that support the unique requirements of industrial environments are necessary. ... Developers should adopt secure coding practices, including coding standards, input validation, secure data storage, secure communication protocols, code reviews, and automated security testing. These measures help identify and mitigate security issues during the development phase, eliminating common vulnerabilities. Additionally, training developers in secure coding techniques and fostering a security-centric culture within development teams are equally crucial. ... Regular software updates and effective patch management are essential to address newly identified security vulnerabilities. Staying current with security patches and updates for all software components is crucial.?

The Case For a Managed Career for Architects

The case for making architecture a managed profession stems from a few critical factors: Rising Levels of Societal Impact: The impact of technology is growing daily. This impact and difficulties of technology, not just threats but the daily interaction of people with technology like subscription models, social media, passwords, banking etc, is increasingly important to the average person. ... Regulatory Pressure: Increasing pressure is coming to bear on all aspects of technology as it relates to government and regulation. From things like sustainability, privacy and accountability to impacts to purchasing, monopolies, identity and security. The more prevalent technology becomes in society, the more regulation that needs to be met to ensure appropriate use. ... New Technology Opportunities/Threats: Avoiding catastrophes in both small and large scopes is one function of modern professions. Non-professionals are not allowed to play with dangerous research or deploy dangerous products in most fields. ... Severe Demand/Quality Problems: The demand for high-quality architecture professionals is growing daily. This demand can no longer be met in the role-based education methods that were developed in the early rush of the 90’s.?

Is your bank’s architecture trapped in the past? It’s time to recompose it

The complexity of banking modernisation, particularly the cost and resource intensiveness associated with a big-bang approach, is one of several reasons many banks may still be stuck with a legacy technology platform. With contemporary architectural techniques such as the “strangulation pattern”, banks can achieve the desired modernisation in a streamlined manner. The strangulation pattern is a software migration strategy involving forming a new software layer, the “strangler”, around the legacy banking system. This strangler interacts with the core system’s data and functionality through well-defined APIs. Gradually, new functionalities are developed within the strangler layer in parallel with the legacy systems, allowing the bank to independently test and refine the new functionalities. Over time, more and more functionalities, based on needs and complexity, are migrated from the core system to the strangler layer. As a result, the core system becomes less and less critical and can be retired entirely or kept as a backup system. Not only does this approach minimise risk compared to a big-bank switchover, but it also allows business operations to continue with minimal disruption.?

Cyberinsurance Premiums are Going Down: Here’s Why and What to Expect

The insurance cycle is described in Wikipedia as “a term describing the tendency of the insurance industry to swing between profitable and unprofitable periods over time…” Such swings are common to all businesses but are particularly relevant to insurance. Within this insurance cycle, the swing is between a ‘hard market’ and a ‘soft market’. Howden defines it thus: “In simple terms, [a soft market] is when there is a lot of insurance capacity, and rates are low. Conversely, a hard market is when insurance capacity is reduced and premium rates are high.” Noticeably, the state of the insured does not figure. “Insurance markets (cyber, property, D&O, etc) tend to run through rating cycles,” explains George Mawdsley, head of risk solutions at DeNexus. “What makes cyber unique is that there is material uncertainty around how big the ‘Big Storms’ can get, which means capital allocators will make conservative assumptions on max downside or will not invest. Given the strong growth projections (demand) for the cyber insurance market, we expect this dynamic to drive up prices over the long term.”

Productivity and patience: How GitHub Copilot is expanding development horizons

Copilot shines in "implementing straightforward, well-defined components in terms of performance and other non-functional aspects. Its efficiency diminishes when addressing complex bugs or tasks requiring deep domain expertise." ... Copilot's greatest challenge is context, he pointed out. "Code and code development has a lot to do with the context that you're dealing with. Are you in a legacy code base or not? Are you in COBOL or in C++ or in JavaScript or TypeScript? It's a lot of context that needs to happen for the quality of that code to be high and for you to accept it." ... The impact on software development from AI will be subtler: "What if a text box is all they needed to be able to accomplish something that creates software and something that they could then derive value from?" For example, said Rodriguez: "If I could say very quickly in my phone, 'Hey, I am thinking of talking to my daughter about these things. Can you give me the last three X, Y, and Z articles and then just create a little program that we could play as a game?' You could envision Copilot being able to help you with that in the future."

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