With 6 weeks to go until IGNITE opens its doors, an array of sectors are registering to explore the impact of The Connected Society.  AI is making waves through different industries at different paces, with some organisations getting their data in order and taking advantage of these technologies much faster than their peers.

Disruption is the norm in the financial services industry - so no surprise that  21% of attendees come from this area. Competitive pressures within the UK’s retail banking sector are well known, but it’s in insurance where automation is driving powerful change, with major players like Aviva exploring automation of the underwriting process. Insurers have faced numerous pressures over the last decade, such as product commoditisation, far-reaching legislation from the EU and government, and high instances of fraud, so cutting costs has long been top of the agenda. Will process automation succeed in overcoming some of the legacy challenges that commonly shape IT projects across insurance and banking? And how will the ever-watchful regulators view these developments?

Insurers are also readying their business models for the age of autonomous transport. So far, 6% IGNITE’s audience comes from the transport and automotive sectors, which pre-Uber, seemed more insulated from the havoc of digitisation.  Aside from driverless cars, automation has great potential for the stalwarts of mass transit, rail and air.  Rail ticketing is an archaic and confusing affair, for UK travellers at least.  Biometrics could be the key to doing away with pesky paper tickets, whilst machine-learning could provide super tailored travel information linking previously disjointed transport modes.

Personalisation is also propelling the case for automating elements of Britain’s favourite past-time - shopping. With 13% of IGNITE’s audience from the retail and e-commerce sectors, various disciplines of AI are reshaping the customer relationship. Chatbots and visual search enable customers to discover products suited to their taste, setting new standards of customer service in the process. Retailers are accustomed to disruption, and it’s exciting to think that VR and AR are about to shake up the industry even further. 

“B2B organisations are turning to events like ours to explore what AI can do for (or to) them”

The majority of IGNITE attendees operate in the B2C market, but with automation expected to change working practices across other established professions, B2B organisations are turning to events like ours to explore what AI can do for (or to) them. With 9% of attendees from professional services and outsourcing, reducing costs is a recurring theme for many of these companies.

“Learning from sectors more advanced in the art of automation is an invaluable way to take inspiration back to the workplace.”

Learning from sectors more advanced in the art of automation is an invaluable way to take inspiration back to the workplace. With over 20 sectors now registered, including media, healthcare, pharma, energy, and public sector, members of the Nimbus Ninety community can go outside their industry bubble and leave IGNITE with a richer perspective on what’s on the horizon. But if you do want to benchmark yourself against your own sector, a dedicated Industry Ideas Exchange on 12 September will do just that. Expert moderators will help you explore the trajectory of automation across your industry, so you can build useful connections along every step of the way.