In this episode, hear about ‘open banking’ and its concerns, smart apartments could change the future of health in Canada and how AI and Machine Learning are changing our customer service experience.

Show Notes:

Open banking is the concept of granting third-parties to access bank data to develop innovative apps. This according to Jeff Henderson, Toronto Dominion Bank's chief information officer could be a "game changer."

All but one of 100 payment executives at major banks globally said they were planning major investments in open banking by 2020, according to an online survey by consulting firm Accenture released last month.

But even as Canadian financial institutions toy with the idea, they're concerned about the looming risk to consumers' personal information amid the growing threat of cyberattacks.

The Accenture survey also showed that 50 per cent of respondents said that implementing the emerging concept increases risk.

The issue is because of this interconnectedness, this means if one bank is attacked then that could spread throughout the entire system affecting all other banks that are connected.

The smart apartment and aging in Canada

An apartment located inside Ottawa’s Élisabeth Bruyère Hospital, is a living laboratory that comes equipped with technology that gathers information to help identify memory and mobility issues.

This apartment looks like a typical one-bedroom senior’s apartment, but hidden inside are a series of sensors that could change the future of aging in Canada.

The Sensors and Analytics for Monitoring Mobility and Memory hub which was unveiled recently is the first of its kind in Canada that will work on the development and testing of new technologies to help seniors remain in their homes longer and more safely.

One of the technologies is a sensor pad on a bed that measures how a person gets out of bed — and can spot worrisome signs that could, for example, point to a stroke or other problem. There were also sensors on appliances to track how often and when the refrigerator was opened and whether the stove was left on, as well as a motion sensor that could help track movements throughout the apartment and sensors to check balance and the way a person walks.

AI to change the customer experience

In the world of customer service, we're experiencing the rise of chatbots, virtual digital assistants, and artificial intelligence (AI) agents, answering basic queries which allow humans to tackle more complex problems and improve the speed and efficiency of decisions.

These technologies will play a much more significant role in customer interactions in the next five years. According to Juniper Research, chatbots will create a cost savings of more than $8 Billion annually by 2022, up from $20 Million in 2017. In the enterprise, 31 per cent of business executives believe virtual personal assistants will have a substantial impact on their business, more than any other AI-powered solution according to a PwC report in 2017.

And 34 per cent of business executives say that the time saved that was generated from using digital assistants allows them to focus on deep thinking and creating.

Tech Bytes:

Apple may be getting into semiconductors in an even bigger way. The company may make its own iPhone power management chips as soon as 2018. Currently, Apple relies on supplier Dialog Semiconductor for those processors, which are important for making sure an iPhone charges correctly and doesn't consume too much energy.

Amazon.com Inc announced its adoption of Kubernetes, a popular open-source technology, in a sign of increased competition in the cloud computing business, which Amazon Web Services has long dominated.

Kubernetes has emerged as a standard among companies as they build more applications on public clouds, the big computer data centers that are displacing traditional customer-owned computer systems.

Earlier this year companies including Microsoft Corp, Oracle Corp and IBM Corp announced their support for Kubernetes, which was originally developed by a team at Google.

Samsung is looking into using palm scanning to remember forgotten passwords. 

Users would take a photo of their palm using the rear camera, in order to verify their identity. If the palm lines match with previous records, then Samsung would display a password hint scattered across the lines, so that you might be able to remember what your password is.