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The Morning Download: Bank of America IT Leaders See Promise in Emerging Tech |
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Good Morning, CIOs. The uptick in customers using Bank of America Corp.'s AI-based virtual assistant and other digital services during lockdowns has the company's technology executives looking towards new tech initiatives, the WSJ's Sara Castellanos reports. “Digital demand is here to stay. That’s not going away…now the question is how can we serve (customers) in more ways,” said Aditya Bhasin, chief information officer for consumer, small business and wealth management at the bank, at a recent virtual event. That's a question many companies and their CIOs are facing as the main impact of the pandemic eases (at least in the U.S.). And the answer likely involves data. Said David Reilly, CIO of global banking and markets at the bank: “Data continues to be probably the largest untapped resource in companies like ours.” |
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The bank has spent about $3 billion on new technology initiatives every year for the last 10 years, with the budget increasing to $3.5 billion this year, according to the company. |
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| Daybase plans to open its first locations in Northern New Jersey this year, eyeing suburban towns like Hoboken, above. PHOTO: JEENAH MOON/GETTY IMAGES |
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The new office hotspot: Suburban homes and retail. Startups and landlords are banking that even after the pandemic, people will want a place to work remotely beyond their living rooms. New York-based startup Daybase is turning retail spaces in the 'burbs into furnished offices that average around 5,000 square feet. Bedroom / Boardroom community. The idea is not replace corporate headquarters but to create an additional network of smaller offices, co-founder Joel Steinhaus, a former WeWork executive, tells the Journal's Konrad Putzier. “There’s not going to be a switch that’s flipped and we’re all going to go back to some normal,” he said. New York City schools kiss snow days goodbye. Thanks a lot, technology. (WSJ) |
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| The Department of Homeland Security is suspending the new fingerprint requirement starting May 17. PHOTO: SUSAN WALSH/ASSOCIATED PRESS |
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DHS to suspend new fingerprint requirement for spouses of H-1B visa holders. Delays due to the visa-processing change, initiated during the Trump administration, left many, mostly professional Indian women, out of work, The Wall Street Journal's Michelle Hackman reports. Last week, several companies including Alphabet Inc., Intel Corp., Microsoft Corp., Salesforce.com Inc. and Twitter Inc. signed a friend-of-the-court brief in the class-action lawsuit against the government, saying they had to put employees on monthslong leaves of absence and that the delays have caused economic harm. |
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| European companies and executives, such as Germany’s BioNTech, had a role in developing several of the Covid-19 vaccines. PHOTO: BIONTECH SE HANDOUT/SHUTTERSTOCK |
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Europe is an engineering hothouse... Inventions include Bluetooth, MP3, the World Wide Web and even Procter & Gamble Co.’s Tide Pods. But... It has a problem benefiting from it. European companies last year accounted for only 21 of Fortune magazine’s global top 100, says the WSJ's Daniel Michaels. Now, as the U.S. and Chinese economies recover, their companies and investors have deeper pockets than Europeans to pay for talent, intellectual property and acquisitions. Good news/Bad news. Europeans launched roughly 50,000 startups last year, compared with fewer than 10,000 a decade ago. But the entrepreneurial energy is overwhelmingly going to foreign buyers. U.S. and Asian investors accounted for 61% of Europe’s tech-startup buyout money over the past four years. Takeaway. The passing shock of the pandemic-induced recession threatens to cause lasting damage to Europe’s broader economic prospects, just as the euro crisis a decade ago did. |
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| Facebook headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif.; the company’s oversight board is unique among social-media companies. PHOTO: NINA RIGGIO/BLOOMBERG NEWS |
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| Everything Else You Need to Know |
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The number of babies born in America last year was the lowest in more than four decades. Births fell 4% in 2020 as the pandemic and lower birth rates among millennials usher in an era of lower fertility. (The Wall Street Journal) Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen played down comments suggesting the Biden administration’s spending plans might prompt the Federal Reserve to lift interest rates, saying “that’s not something I’m predicting or recommending.” (The Wall Street Journal) The Biden administration said it would begin reallocating some Covid-19 vaccine doses to states with higher demand for shots and direct pharmacies to offer walk-in vaccinations, as the president aims to get 70% of the adult population at least one dose by July 4. (The Wall Street Journal) |
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