As artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) become more mainstream and user-friendly, it will become more prevalent in small and medium enterprises. The technology can help these firms improve productivity, better connect with customers, and stay ahead of the competition. If you want to position your business as a leader, it is important to stay current with this technology and utilize it to improve your company.

The blockchain is for transactions what the Web was for information. Its path towards commercial innovation is strikingly similar to the Web’s way of causing an information revolution.

Today, the large platforms are the focus of our Internet use. People gather around Facebook, Apple, Amazon and Google. They make themselves compliant servants of the corporations and surrender all rights and data. With blockchain technology, users can reclaim their place at the centre of the network. Applications will again become what they really are: tools that serve people.

More and more monopolies are developing on the Internet, hindering innovation and equal opportunities. Blockchain technology can be used to organise many services on the network in a decentralised way, for the benefit of consumers, innovation and competition.

In 2008, a man named Satoshi Nakamoto introduced the electronic currency Bitcoin and the associated global payment system. Bitcoin uses mathematical methods to handle secure financial transactions over the Internet without the need for a central clearing house such as a bank or a company like Paypal. In the past, if you wanted to pay for a book in a shop, it was very easy. You took the money out of your pocket, handed it over to the cashier, who took it, gave you a receipt and the transaction was done. The money went through no other hands, no one documented the exchange and yet both sides were sure that things were done properly. Nowadays, this can be much more complicated. When paying on the Web, it usually takes at least three middlemen to complete a simple process such as paying for a book.