Lab49

I was in Abu Dhabi recently to talk with startups about the banking industry. It was fascinating to hear their take. When we asked: “How did you pick your bank?” They said “We didn’t. Our bank chose us.” It turns out that there are so many hurdles to get through in part because of the way startups are structured and financed that it’s hard for them to even open an account. They tried to work with the big traditional banks for months. In the end, all the startups we spoke with ended up going with the neo banks that are proliferating throughout the region to get the job done. But the story doesn't end with account opening. There's a ton of unmet needs around how to support these entrepreneurs as they grow.  More on that soon!

📢 Yiannis Antoniou, Head of Data, AI, and Analytics at Lab49, has been featured in the latest issue from Digitalisation World! To find out more about the importance of data governance for effective AI applications, read below. #Data #AI #Finance

It's been a busy conference season! Just in the past few weeks, I've been to Apollo GraphQL Summit. I got to watch Scott Silvi talk about next generation AI powered chatbots and David Scott on how to go from 1 to N faster and better. Before that, I was invited to the interop.io Client Forum. I can't share what I saw there 🤫 but the major themes were how to use interop at scale, and the intersection of interop and AI. My colleague Yiannis Antoniou was part of a panel there, so if you want to hear more on the topic send me a message! Last week was FIA, Inc. Futures & Options Expo, quite an experience. Too much to recap there, but I can't not mention the fine folks at BSO and how great it was to attend together. More to come here! Which conference should I go to next?

I hosted a workshop about modernizing the banking system in Dubai and Abu Dhabi that provided some perspective about the startup scene in the Middle East. The first, not-so surprising conclusion (with all the incentives in place), was that a vibrant community of founders has emerged. I expected as much because the workshop included five: Edouard Bouvet, Co-founder & CEO at Swyt; Sandeep Devaram, Co-founder of Colearn; @Fauzi Fellal, founder of TKTKT; Mitchell Franklin, founder of UMATR Group and Florian UGHETTO, founder of Easy Wedding. The surprise was that five out of five were immigrants. As an American working at a tech firm with global employees and clients, I’m no stranger to expat-heavy global hubs. But I was still surprised that the CEOs building in the region came from France, India, Switzerland, and the UK. It marks a contrast to other countries and probably reflects the fact that almost 90% of the UAE’s population is non-Emirati! The strategy of attracting founders appears to be working. Abu Dhabi recently surpassed Tel Aviv as the Middle East's fastest-growing startup ecosystem. The Emirati capital now ranks among the world's top 10 Asia-Pacific startup hubs, according to Startup Genome. The UAE's embrace of global talent offers a model for the region. In an era of rising barriers, the Emirates is betting that the future belongs to countries who welcome strivers. Of course, challenges remain. The group we assembled talked about the frustrations of navigating a byzantine banking system ill-equipped for the needs of global startups. The sessions gave us a lot to consider, and I will follow-up with more insights soon!  

Lab49's Brian Wm. McAllister will be attending the FIA, Inc. Futures & Options Expo. Drop by the BSO booth to learn more about the exciting work we're doing!

The most powerful AI systems won't think like humans; they will act like them. These so-called ‘AI agents’ execute tasks currently being done by people. AI agents are the new frontier in automation, moving beyond simple chatbots to execute sophisticated workflows with human-like judgment. The way that these agents work is both simple and complex. Here's the gist: • Write instructions in plain English. No coding required. • The AI framework plans the work, breaking it into tasks. • Specialized sub-agents tackle different parts of the job. • The system constantly refines outputs, asking for human input as needed. • Finally, it automatically executes the requested actions. Think of it like having a hyper-efficient, hyper-specialized virtual team at your disposal. Each agent has its own role and set of skills, but they collaborate seamlessly to get the job done. The true game changer is that these systems can handle the messy, unpredictable nature of real-world tasks. They're not limited to linear workflows. Instead, they adapt to twists and turns, making judgment-driven decisions honed by advanced language models. There are use cases across industries - take software engineering for example. Updating legacy internal systems is a notorious headache for developers. AI agents could analyze old code, document business logic, and even help translate it into modern languages. Technology is all about making previously daunting projects feasible and this should be able to address a large percentage of the $1.8 trillion in lost productivity in the U.S. The efficiency gains are potentially staggering. We're talking about AI handling tasks that currently dampen entire job functions – onboarding, compliance analysis, sales development, customer service, and more. For businesses, this means unprecedented scalability, because AI agents are infinitely easier to "hire" than humans. It will also lead to role redefinement, because agents can handle the ‘kill-joy’ administrative firefighting that most corporate jobs require. My favorite part: we're still in the early days. Most of the real, application-level breakthroughs are yet to come. If you're an executive, now's the time to reimagine cumbersome business processes and empower teams with tools for greater efficiency and decision-making. If you're an entrepreneur, there's a massive opportunity wherever you see a concentration of repetitive, deterministic workflows. The companies that fully productize these AI workflows, making it effective for a wide range of use cases, will be the ones reshaping entire industries. 

We're all about recognizing our phenomenal people at Lab - Congratulations to our team members who have stepped up to new roles in 2024! 🎉 Gergely, István and Mark - well done! 👏

🚀 New Webinar Alert for Quality Engineering Teams! 🚀 We're thrilled to present an in-depth session with Rohit Vatta, Head of Quality Engineering at Lab49, exploring transformative strategies to boost speed, elevate productivity, and refine frameworks in your automation journey. https://lnkd.in/eSnPa6jc

“What Claude gets really right is the flawless execution and whiz-bang factor of its integration... Claude’s capabilities right now offer an enticing alternative to manual data analysis for a full array of use cases"- Yiannis Antoniou, Head of Data, Analytics, and AI. Lab49's Yiannis Antoniou offered his insights on Anthropic's Claude's data analysis capabilities and its market position compared to competitors such as Chat GPT. Read MES Computing's article below to learn about the '5 Things to Know' about Anthropic's latest upgrades to Claude. #AI #Anthropic #Claude

“Anthropic’s choice of the term ‘computer use’ instead of ‘agents’ makes this technology more approachable to regular users”, Yiannis Antoniou, Head of Data, Analytics, and AI   Lab49's Yiannis Antoniou was recently quoted in Fiona Jackson's article for TechRepublic on Anthropic's major upgrade of Claude 3.5 Sonnet.   The upgraded Claude 3.5 Sonnet lays the groundwork for everyday users to give natural language commands to AI, offering a glimpse of a future where users can delegate computer tasks to AI through simple conversational commands. In Fiona’s article, Yiannis shares key insights into what these updates mean for AI adoption.   #AI #Anthropic #Claude