FEATURED COVERAGE

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 These days, it’s not enough to offer a good product or service. To please today’s customers, you need to deliver a flawless digital experience.

The ever-quickening pace of technological change continues to have profound effects on nearly every industry. It’s turned some industries, such as retail, on its head. Whether it’s how companies interact with customers, how they handle their supply chain or what they do with the data they collect, no company can operate in this era without considering how technology plays a role.

But what can all industries learn from this disruption? How can companies leverage new technologies like artificial intelligence or blockchain to differentiate themselves in a crowded and challenging marketplace?

 Armughan Ahmad is the managing partner and president of digital and technology solutions at KPMG in Canada, and Alexander Peh is vice-president, technology and operations at Royal Bank of Canada (RBC). As two executives who live and breathe innovation, they were eager to discuss how companies can thrive in this era of unprecedented change. 

*Click link below for full interview.

The Globe and Mail 15.04.19

In Demark, the tech ecosystem is thriving. It was named the ‘most digital country’ in Europe according to the 2017 Digital Economy and Society Index. And Forbes expects that this year, Demark will be breaking records when it comes to venture capital raised. While Apple has recently scooped up two Danish startups.

For Canada’s part, the Denmark tech ecosystem is so promising that last year the government of Ontario and the Nordic country penned a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that aims to accelerate the collaboration between the Danish and Canadian fintech ecosystems. The MoU focuses on three main emerging technologies – blockchain, artificial intelligence (AI) and cybersecurity.

Leading the charge in this pursuit is Copenhagen FinTech, which is the first and largest Nordic fintech working space and incubator. The over 200 startups who work with the incubator receive access to the extensive Copenhagen FinTech network, which stretches from across Norway, Sweden and Finland to other global hubs in Silicon Valley, the United Kingdom, and Singapore. The lab also offers mentorship to member companies and three-month incubation programs for ambitious entrepreneurs to develop their ideas into viable fintech companies. The Nordic region’s tech ecosystem is internationally renowned in emerging technologies like AI, blockchain and cybersecurity – technologies that RBC believes will fundamentally impact the future of banking.

At RBC, we’re committed to investing in and collaborating with the fintech community. That’s why we’ve signed on as Copenhagen FinTech’s first North American Global Partner sponsor.

With the ambition of building new relationships between Demark’s startups and key players in Ontario’s fintech community, we’re one of the first Canadian companies to help usher in a new era of collaboration between these two ecosystems.

Since partnering, we’ve seen how vibrant the Nordic region’s fintech community is. We’re excited to continue to learn from the best and brightest minds in the world with the aim of continuing to grow and support Canada’s innovation ecosystem.

Alexander Peh - RBC Future Makers 21.11.18

*Behind PayWall

As cyber attacks become more frequent and costly, banks are increasingly turning to artificial intelligence to protect their networks—but so are the criminals.

 The first recorded bank heist in US history occurred in 1831, when James Honeyman and William Murray entered the City Bank of New York, courtesy of forged keys—and made away with $245,000 in cash. Fast forward to 2016, and crooks made away with $1 billion from the Bangladesh Bank by using much the same tactic—although the forged keys were transmitted through the Swift network, via fiberoptic cables, sending fake instructions to the central bank’s account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. 

In the modern world, the days of the stick-up man are fading, but the criminals themselves have

mostly swapped their bandanas for hoodies, their sawed-off shotguns for keyboards. Where

banks once had to guard against physical incursions, would-be bank robbers are increasingly

turning to artificial intelligence (AI) to assist them with heists.

This broad umbrella of technology—which includes machine learning, deep learning, and

automation—is now being deployed for sophisticated cyberattacks. Instead of the old standard distributed denial of service (DDoS) assaults that targets a small portion of a network, attackers can use their own versions of AI programs to craft targeted attacks by mining personally

identifiable data from organizations. This data is then used for advanced phishing attacks.

To combat this, the financial services industry is fighting fire with fire. AI is being developed for

use in cybersecurity as it eases many of the burdens they face when confronted with billions of network events to sift through every month, says the Royal Bank of Canada’s (RBC’s) head of

innovation, Alexander Peh.

“AI is one of the most transformational technologies we see today in that it opens up possible new products but also new ways to improve operations including protecting our internal and

client data,” says Peh. “We live in a world that is increasingly connected so there are more

avenues to attack. We do believe that we can continue to innovate and advocate for better

security and a deeper talent pool for security.”

RBC has also begun deploying AI in its cybersecurity defenses, according to Peh, mainly

around analyzing the threat data coming into its systems and finding ways to enhance its own

models.

“We doubled our cybersecurity spend and that includes investments into adversarial AI and

other investments that we have made into the technology,” Peh says. “We use it to analyze 200

billion log events per month and tag it across our entire system.”

RBC inked a research and development deal with Israel’s Ben-Gurion University and its

technology arm BGN Technologies for $2 million earlier this year. The partnership will allow

BGN to explore how to use AI and machine learning to mitigate cyber threats.

RBC’s Peh says part of the research is to look into adversarial AI to find loopholes in algorithms

to better secure machine-learning models. It also has a partnership with Canada’s Waterloo

University around privacy and AI.

Waters Technology 06.11.18

On November 28, RBC is hosting its next FutureMakers Talks event with a focus on quantum computing.

As quantum computing is set to impact industries ranging from pharmaceuticals to cybersecurity, the event will explore how technologists can adapt and evolve with these changes. While quantum is still in its infancy, many technologists have stressed the importance for businesses to understand how it will change the way we analyze and solve problems.

Xanadu quantum application scientist Razieh Annabestani will headline with a talk on the current state of quantum computing technology. Xanadu raised a $9 million seed round in May to advance the Canadian quantum ecosystem.

Xanadu quantum application scientist Razieh Annabestani will headline the evening with a talk on the current state of quantum computing technology, covering the engineering obstacles that exist within the current physical platforms used to create quantum computing devices, and specific problems that can benefit from hybrid quantum-classical algorithms.

Xanadu has been working to advance the Canadian quantum ecosystem since its $9 million seed round in May. The company recently launched open source machine learning software for quantum computers, dubbed PennyLane, which can interact with quantum computers from different companies (such as the IBM Quantum Experience) in a hardware-agnostic way. The company is also a partner on CDL’s quantum machine learning program.

The Knowledge Society innovator Tommy Moffatt will share a presentation titled ‘Hybrid Algorithms for a Near-Term Quantum Revolution’; in his talk, Moffatt will highlight how systems that combine classical and quantum computers could create near-term applications for quantum technology, even if large-scale applications are decades away. QEYnet Inc. co-founders Cordell Grant and Jennifer Elliott will share perspective on how Quantum Key Distribution is imperative to defending against cyber threats that will be brought on by quantum computing.

“Quantum computing is expected to fundamentally impact traditional encryption methods and companies in all industries should be paying attention,” said Alexander Peh, vice-president of innovation at RBC. “Creating opportunities that focus on sharing knowledge on emerging technologies like quantum computing is important and FutureMakers Talks is set to do just that. It’s bringing together some of the brightest minds in the field to explore this developing area.”

Amir Feizpour, senior manager of data science and analytics at RBC, will also share a talk on ‘Quantum 101.’ Feizpour will discuss the evolution of computation over the years, and where quantum computing fits in the next stage of that evolution.

BetaKit 20.11.18