National Technology News takes a look at some of the highlights from DTX Europe 2023, which took place at the ExCel Centre in London on 4 and 5 October.

Diversity

During a fireside chat on the main stage at on Wednesday, Martha Lane Fox, president of the British Chambers of Commerce made calls for the tech world to make diversity a priority, stating there were “no excuses” not to improve representation in the sector.

The industry needs “leaders who are intentful and focused” on diversity and environmental matters for true change, Fox said.

Throughout the broad-ranging conversation, Fox also highlighted the fact around 10 million people in the UK lack access to technology, and that this was mainly due to “socioeconomic reasons”.

Fox said that while there are plenty of headlines around UK investment in tech and plans for the country to become a global leader, “a well-defined case has not yet been made around achieving an uptick in access to tech for that last 10 per cent".

Providing her views on technology application, Fox said that just because something can be digitised, “it doesn’t mean it should be.”

During a subsequent panel on the main stage, Sophie Neary, group director for Meta UK and Ireland, reflected similar sentiments around diversity. “Talent is equally distributed - opportunity is not,” Neary said. “[But] we can make the change happen. Successful companies are the ones who are optimistic.”

This same panel also featured reflections on evolving business operations to meet the digital future, with PwC’s cloud & digital lead Warren Tucker quoting research which suggest that 40 per cent of business owners don’t believe their current model would be fit for purpose a few years down the line and stating his belief that that “rapid change across the sector is inevitable”.

Cybersecurity and AI

Expert speakers on event stages with a particular focus on cybersecurity and AI reflected similar sentiments on the need to continue evolving to meet the new digital reality, with speakers on cyber war and cyber resilience sessions urging firms to enhance their defence systems to combat advanced cyberthreats while focusing on the responsible use of AI.

Jenny Radcliffe, distinguished social engineer and author of the book People Hacker told attendees: “I’m yet to see AI replicate what a human social engineer can do - not that AI isn’t as brilliant as it is terrifying. [But] people are the most unpredictable entity you will ever come across. Feeding off experiential learning from a machine is never going to be as intuitive as a human.”

Elsewhere renowned software engineer Kelsey Hightower gave his view on the hype surrounding AI.

“You can rub AI on a can opener at the moment and you would get funding,” he said. “If you are asking if AI is going to take your job, what is your job?”

Day two of DTX featured UCL Professor and author Hannah Fry who was joined by TV presenter and comedian Dara O'Briain to discuss the impact of AI on society and business.

“The human world is random and chaotic - and the algorithmic world is clean and binary,” Fry told the crowd. “[So] smashing these two worlds together makes for some interesting stuff.”

Fry went on to share the observation that the pace of technology development often depends on how ready humans are for change and pointed to the long-term presence of the software behind ChatGPT, which only became realised outside of the tech world after the introduction of a “simple user interface that suddenly made it available to everybody.”

In their further discussions on AI, Fry and O’Briain concluded that experiences such as comedy remain intrinsically human and may never be replicated by AI, and that it is real people who are still in control of “intention” as we climb “an exponential curve”.

Making tech work for everyone

The role of humans in an increasingly digital world was a recurrent theme on day two of DTX.

On a panel entitled “managing change to make tech work for everyone”, head of change at Tesco Christopher Harvey discussed how businesses need to create a narrative when introducing new tech: building a sense of excitement so that people don’t immediately reject the idea.

The panel also emphasised the value of “storytelling” in tech - a skill that human beings can utilise to articulate and promote innovations as these tools cannot do so themselves.

Speaking on a separate panel, Wincie Wong, head of workplace tech capability at Digital X at Natwest said blending human approaches with AI involves developing a diverse and inclusive workforce.

“My real passion is to create pathways for others to do the same, break through preconceived ideas and ultimately help a 300-year-old bank meet the needs of a changing world,” she said. “Part of that is creating a bigger tech workforce and a pipeline of engineers that will not all come from a tech degree. I like to find talent in unusual spaces, people from all backgrounds who are resilient and change-ready who can learn the tech and get a commercial result.”

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