Technology
Our resident tech gurus look at the impacts of the latest technological developments
Latest Article
4th January 2024
The development and economic action plan of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) is truly remarkable. The planned economic development of the KSA, across every facet of society, via the Vision 2030 initiative will materially change how people live, consume and work within.
The adoption of the world’s leading technologies across the full asset lifecycle and every sector of the built environment, underpins much of the delivery of the "giga-projects." From the mobility and accessibility of NEOM, to... Read More >
Recent Articles:
20th November 2023
This is a question we are often asked at The Proptech Connection (The PTC). The answer is simple, but also complex. Simply, it’s a catch all term that describes technology that impacts space. The complex answer is that its constantly changing, Read More >
2nd October 2023
The world has witnessed breathtaking advances in generative artificial intelligence (AI), with ChatGPT being one of the best known examples. To prevent harm and misuse of the technology, politicians are now considering regulating AI. Yet they Read More >
10th June 2023
If increasingly panic-stricken headlines are to be believed, Artificial Intelligence poses an existential threat to humanity. The Prime Minister’s advisor on AI has warned that we have just two years to protect the species, and the Center Read More >
5th June 2023
The recent news that BT would reduce its workforce by as many as 55,000 by 2030, including about 10,000 jobs replaced by artificial intelligence (AI), is part of a growing trend of job losses globally due to various forms of Read More >
14th May 2023
There’s a fun game to be played with The New York Times’ coverage of British crime. It’s very simple and you can play along at home: how many paragraphs will it take the paper to tell you what the sympathetic victim of the legal Read More >
14th May 2023
Not if it can generate income…
Originally published July 2022.
Mostly confined to cyberpunk and tech circles prior to 2021, the metaverse has since experienced breakout attention and entered the common vernacular. Not all of this has Read More >
14th May 2023
How algorithm managers are taking over the office.
The 1999 cult classic film Office Space depicts Peter’s dreary life as a cubicle-dwelling software engineer. Every Friday, Peter tries to avoid his boss and the dreaded words: “I’m Read More >
9th May 2023
The social separation imposed by the pandemic led us to rely on technology to an extent we might never have imagined – from Teams and Zoom to online banking and vaccine status apps.
Now, society faces an increasing number of decisions about Read More >
20th February 2023
Climate change policy has entered a new era. The growing row between the United States and the European Union over the impacts of the new American green subsidy regime makes that all too clear. Yet in many ways, this story is ultimately Read More >
25th January 2023
Ever since Elon Musk took Twitter private for US$44bn (£36bn), the debate around the social media platform has been vitriolic. There has been considerable angst about the direction Musk has been taking the company and his potential Read More >
29th November 2022
Facebook may not be the original social media platform, but it has stood the test of time – until recently. Meta, the company that owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, saw its value plummet by around $80bn (£69bn) in just one day Read More >
23rd November 2022
Valuable eyewitness accounts and raw data on human behavior, as well as a habitat for trolls
What do a cybersecurity researcher building a system to generate alerts for detecting security threats and vulnerabilities, a wildfire Read More >
2nd November 2022
Here’s what that means for the company and its chances of success.
Elon Musk has finally completed his US$44bn deal to acquire Twitter and take it private.
The world’s richest man has already begun putting his imprint on the Read More >
11th October 2022
Tech startups have been the British economic success story of the past decade. You can measure this success by the obvious metrics, like our stunning VC investment figures, or the less obvious ones, like the fact that more and more young, Read More >
27th September 2022
Originally published June 2021.
Prices are too high, availability too low, and the charging network is a dog’s breakfast. Hold your horses – or just get a bike.
Tackling climate change makes fixing the pandemic “look easy”, Read More >
26th September 2022
Originally published October 2019.
Today is my little boy’s sixth birthday. And as I sit here waiting for him to get home from school, ready for the joy and the chaos of his party, I can’t help but smile at his presents and the ever-so Read More >
31st August 2022
Why tech companies must address emissions caused by streaming and scrolling.
Technology companies have been having a difficult year. The increased cost of living is turning people away from streaming, cryptocurrencies are faltering, Read More >
23rd August 2022
Kicking off a three-part series on proptech, in its very widest sense, let’s look back first of all to the Stone Age.
Originally published December 2020.
Urbanisation has been a key driver for technological breakthroughs. But what was Read More >
22nd August 2022
In a sector where outdated practices are a matter of life or death, providers need to value their buildings in a way that recognises health technology.
Originally published June 2021.
If 2020 taught us one thing, it’s that global Read More >
21st April 2022
Originally published May 2019.
If investor confidence was affected by the stock market slides of ‘Red October’, it seemed to have returned with the arrival of spring 2019 and a highly anticipated series of IPOs. Following Lyft’s Read More >
20th April 2022
In a busy start to April 2022 for the British chancellor, Rishi Sunak announced his intention to make the UK a “global hub for cryptoassets technology”. Put simply, this means he wants the country to be an attractive place for Read More >
20th April 2022
Originally published June 2019.
One cynical – but useful – view of modern technology is that it allows us to play through the scams and mistakes of the last few millennia at warp speed. Bitcoin and associated cryptos have gone through Read More >
19th April 2022
Originally published July 2019.
That the robots are coming for all our jobs is entirely true. That this is a problem is less clear – after all, we’ve been trying to kill off jobs since we first started automating anything at all by Read More >
24th February 2022
Nick Clegg is doing the same useful job for Mark Zuckerberg as he did for David Cameron’s Tories.
In what many saw as a surprise move, Meta has promoted former UK Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg to its President of Global Read More >
17th February 2022
Originally published February 2020.
London has become synonymous with innovation, especially in the decade following the 2008 crash, which arguably marked the beginning of the city’s upward trajectory in tech. Buoyed by support from Read More >
18th November 2021
Originally published March 2021.
Proptech aims to disrupt in multiple ways, but equity markets may hold a clue to the future.
This is the third article in our proptech series. The first looked at how to connect finance and property Read More >
16th November 2021
Originally published September 2021.
Without cyber insurance your business is vulnerable.
An IT department received an email from their marketing team stating that they couldn’t access their files mounted on the file-share server. Read More >
3rd June 2021
For many involved in real estate, problems such as a lack of affordable housing or excessive contributions to global carbon emissions are now becoming obvious. Accordingly, two-thirds of real estate investors are looking to increase their Read More >
20th April 2021
On 16 December 2020 the following joint statement was issued by the FBI, the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence: “Over the course of the past several days, the FBI, CISA, Read More >
24th February 2021
Exponentiality not linearity is the way forward for proptech.
This is our second article on how the power of data will change the real estate investment landscape. In the first article we explained how ownership data can connect finance and Read More >
22nd January 2021
… and why ownership capital structures matter
Much is written about data in today’s world. Those that have it, and more importantly those that control it, are seen as the new masters of the universe. Some people say it is overcooked, but Read More >
19th January 2021
Following a look at historical proptech impacts and then the current innovation and productivity challenges faced by the wider real estate industry, this final piece in our three-part mini-series will conclude by mapping the current proptech Read More >
16th December 2020
Continuing our three-part series on proptech, a look at the innovation gap in real estate.
Following our walk down proptech’s memory lane last week, today we will look at the real estate industry’s innovation gap. This in turn will set Read More >
15th December 2020
Near-zero yields are making it difficult for pensions and endowments to hit the targets they need to meet their future obligations. It’s pushing disciples of the classic investing strategy of 60% stocks/40% bonds to get more creative.
As an Read More >
23rd November 2020
This article was originally published in September 2018.
The market players are different and the transactions are significantly more complex than 30 years ago
Perhaps the long hot summer in continental Europe is not the most prudent time Read More >
6th November 2020
The need for remote working and task automation to cut infection risk is boosting adoption, but proptech shouldn’t just be about damage limitation.
According to MetaProp’s recent survey, 89% of proptech investors believe that the current Read More >
9th October 2020
The ‘next normal’ – the same as the last normal but has just arrived more quickly than expected. Like so many events, it’s a case of expediting existing trends not starting new ones. Retailers that have been living off low interest rate Read More >
15th July 2020
ARTICLE ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED JANUARY 15TH 2018
I spent Christmas in Northern California this year and met up with friends whilst in San Francisco. Given that I was in the world’s tech hub, it didn’t take long for the conversation to turn to Read More >
16th March 2020
A few weeks ago, plans for a third runway at Heathrow Airport hit the skids when the Court of Appeal ruled the Government’s decision-making process unlawful. For the moment at least, with ministers preoccupied by both Brexit and the small Read More >
11th December 2019
Among the maelstrom of election news stories that broke yesterday was one that will be music to the ears of many free-marketeers. Responding to a question from a member of the public, Boris Johnson said that the BBC licence fee should be Read More >
5th December 2019
Nato’s birthday celebrations were marred by a row between two of the guests, Presidents Macron and Trump, over both the health of the military alliance and France’s decision to hit US firms with a new digital tax. This row has at least drawn Read More >
27th November 2019
It’s a dark day for Londoners.
Uber – the ride-hailing app which launched in the city in 2012 and has since revolutionised transport across the world’s major cities – has been handed an effective ban from operating in the capital by Read More >
19th November 2019
The rural economy has extraordinary potential. Food production will always be the backbone of any farm, but landowners are now increasingly likely to be building affordable homes, renting holiday cottages, running renewable energy Read More >
12th September 2019
It seems that barely a week goes by without some scare story being published in the press about how AI and automation are going to lead to mass unemployment and a world without work. The Technology Trap by Carl Benedikt Frey is a refreshing Read More >
10th September 2019
So now we know for sure. Thanks to Grant Shapps, Westminster’s biggest open secret is finally out there. HS2 is actually going to cost considerably more than we were told four years ago.
For us at the TaxPayers’ Alliance, this is a Read More >
25th July 2019
The hidden benefits of Britain’s new railway are vast. The only problem is they’re hidden
In recent months there has been no shortage of ill-thought through articles in the British press urging the cancellation of High Speed 2, a Read More >
11th July 2019
The internet has opened a huge window onto the range of products and services available to consumers, and revolutionised the way we purchase them. In the UK alone, E-commerce sales have rocketed up fifty-six per cent from £375.1 billion Read More >
25th June 2019
It is commonplace to say that the pace of technological change is speeding up. From Twitter to online shopping our everyday lives are, apparently, being transformed.
One of the central puzzles of modern economics is that this change is not Read More >
24th May 2019
When France built its high-speed rail network, it revolutionised the way we looked at train travel. What takes 4-5 hours by long-distance bus from Brussels to Paris can now be completed in just over an hour with a Thalys train. Dumping slow Read More >
10th May 2019
Data is all the buzz around real estate, but how do we categorise it, what data do we need, what are the concerns and why should I care about the content of the local water supply before I consider whether to purchase a real estate Read More >
15th April 2019
The kings of Siam used to gift a white elephant to courtiers to whom they took a dislike. The elephants would be incredibly costly to maintain as they required special food and housing and it was illegal for the owner to sell them or to put them Read More >
3rd April 2019
We’re getting closer to understanding one of the big puzzles of our time – the world is in the middle of a technological revolution, but it is difficult to spot in the economic data.
As Robert Solow has pointed out, computers and internet Read More >
19th March 2019
It is possible to wonder a little about those who rule us. Occasionally they come up with ideas that leave more than a hint of a suspicion that they don’t have much of a clue.
The latest example comes from the All Party Parliamentary Group Read More >
18th March 2019
Sensors, data and automation will increasingly define construction projects – as well as cityscapes
There are more than 1,000 ongoing smart city projects around the world right now. Sensors, data and automation will increasingly define Read More >
16th March 2019
Wednesday’s Spring Statement was always likely to be a sideshow compared to the Autumn Budget, even if Brexit hadn’t taken centre stage. But the Chancellor still managed to say a few interesting things, including on “tech and the Read More >
14th March 2019
Amazon’s Echo speaker and similar smart speakers have recently been added to the basket of goods the Office for National Statistics uses to calculate inflation. It’s another useful reminder of how we tend to overstate inflation and thus Read More >
6th March 2019
The combination of mobile phone technology and the internet has had a transformative effect on many parts of Africa. By leapfrogging the landline stage of telephone development, a host of services, particularly banking, have brought Read More >
1st March 2019
1. It’s time to take responsbility
Unease about big tech’s impact on society is driving a movement towards responsibility. Fifty-one per cent of Americans think that major technology companies should be regulated more than they currently Read More >
1st March 2019
Last night’s eagerly awaited speech by the Chairman of the Government’s much hyped rail review, former British Airways CEO, Keith Williams, raised real concern amongst those of us holding out for real structural change on the railways. In Read More >
5th February 2019
“If someone was ready to fork over $1 million to you to stop using the Internet – forever – would you do it?”
Economics professor W. Michael Cox, who asked that question of his students, received an unambiguous reply. “You couldn’t Read More >
27th January 2019
The UK and Australia may soon press ahead with world-first digital taxes on the appropriation of user data for advertising and other services by tech giants such as Google and social media platforms like Facebook. These moves come as France’s Read More >
16th January 2019
There is a new instalment in the poorly acted farce that is HS2. Today it has been revealed that HS2 may be forced to cut the number of trains it runs each hour in a vain attempt to curtail the project’s ever-increasing costs.
The move Read More >
16th December 2018
Recently, I asked for the public’s thoughts on the sharing economy.
I also met SharingEconomyUK, an industry body representing companies such as Uber, Airbnb, Zipcar, TaskRabbit, Liftshare, Deliveroo, Gumtree and many more.
What I heard Read More >
15th December 2018
There was a horrible inevitability about the recent announcement of a gene-edited baby: that it would happen at some point, that it would be in China, that it would be announced on YouTube by the rogue researcher, He Jiankui of the Southern Read More >
4th December 2018
We’ve all heard that the CEO also needs to be the CTO – it’s a truth that we can’t ignore. Technology in business as in our lives is no longer something ‘separate’, it’s a part of it. We don’t see our smartphones as a Read More >
2nd December 2018
The internet was supposed to fragment audiences and make media monopolies impossible. Instead, behemoths like Google and Facebook now dominate the time we spend online — and grab all the profits from the attention economy. A timely new book Read More >
25th November 2018
The number of criminal cyberattacks keep rising and we are still fairly in the dark when it comes to how best to tackle them. AI is often seen as the holy grail that will save us from hackers and ransomware. But will it actually be able to Read More >
19th November 2018
Back in May, apparently in an effort to look like ‘real people’ on social media, Conservative MPs received some much-needed, if slightly elementary, top tips to up their game on Instagram. But while some have way to go in keeping up with the Read More >
18th November 2018
We gluttonous Westerners are being told to dramatically cut our meat consumption to reduce our carbon footprint, but it could well be that a pioneering new technology removes the need for any enforced vegetarianism.
If we can resist the Read More >
16th November 2018
Some people are dumping their smartphones and returning to old-fashioned hand-held devices. Eddie Redmayne did so in 2016, stating, “It was a reaction against being glued permanently to my iPhone during waking hours. The deluge of emails was Read More >
8th November 2018
Surveying is not an industry generally renowned for perching on the cutting edge of technology. You would be hard pressed to find many established businesses in this sphere at the forefront of the digital revolution, although the principle of Read More >
7th September 2018
Back in May, apparently in an effort to look like ‘real people’ on social media, Conservative MPs received some much-needed, if slightly elementary, top tips to up their game on Instagram. But while some have way to go in keeping up with the Read More >
4th September 2018
Exxon Valdez, Gerald Ratner, Deepwater Horizon - all names that have become metonyms for corporate crisis. More recently, organisations such as PepsiCo and Microsoft, as well as large charities, have experienced crises of their own, through Read More >
29th August 2018
Politicians love to talk up technological advances. Those of a certain age will recall Harold Wilson famously talking about the “white heat” of the technological revolution demanding economic and social changes “which permeate our whole Read More >
31st July 2018
The Internet of Things (IoT) is a network of interconnected devices or systems, which communicate and share data with other smart devices. The IoT is all around us—and it’s connecting our phones, computers, cars, and homes. It allows us to Read More >
26th June 2018
What is it about the European Union and bad tech laws with boring names? Brussels managed to transform four harmless letters into a byword for irritating compliance-induced spam and pop ups as well as a consolidation of power for the Read More >
13th June 2018
Technology isn’t just about your home or office, it’s also about the environment that surrounds us all. And it’s happening now.
Urbanites are the driving force of economies, innovation and lifestyle. By 2045, the world's urban Read More >
2nd May 2018
The government announced a “sector deal” for the artificial intelligence industry today, which it says is worth £1 billion. About a third of that comes in the form of public funding and a third from new private sector investment, Read More >
8th April 2018
Having recently hosted an event at MIPIM 2018 on the topic I can confidently say the Internet of Things (IoT) is here to stay and is set to make big differences in the way we live, work and shop.
You can look at stats such as there being a Read More >
6th April 2018
Technological progress has frequently resulted in changes in the nature of work, sometimes affecting skilled workers more and sometimes affecting unskilled workers more. But whichever categories of worker were affected, such changes have almost Read More >
22nd February 2018
Rob Bould past chairman of the Investment Property Forum and NED of Coyote Group gives his perspective the tech revolution in the property industry and looks at the practical applications of these new technologies.
Few people can define ‘Big Read More >
15th February 2018
With the annual Consumer and Electronics Show (CES) having recently taken place in Las Vegas, now is a good time to assess which technology is set to make an impact in the property world this year and beyond.
Voice activation truly arrived at Read More >
12th December 2017
Automation, customisation and big data are some of the trends expected to change the retail industry and the way consumers shop in the future. Recently CBRE, the world’s leading real estate services firm and a Partner of The Property Chronicle, Read More >
6th July 2017
Kok Keong Tan is the co-founder of FundPlaces, an alternative investment platform for real estate.
I embarked on a different type of real estate journey three years ago, setting out to change how people invest in real estate. My team and I Read More >
5th July 2017
Elon Musk, perhaps the world’s best-known serial tech entrepreneur, has spent the last 15 years creating an empire that has vertically integrated the sustainable energy and transport market and now he is on the verge of bringing it to the Read More >
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