The Next Five

It’s 2026. You’re the CEO of a global bank or the Head of Surgery at a major hospital. An AI system looks at a complex set of volatile market data, or a patient’s decade-long medical history, and gives you a directive. It doesn’t just give you a percentage of probability. It tells you exactly what to do. But here is the catch: If that decision fails, "the machine told me so" won’t hold up in court, in the boardroom, or at a patient’s bedside. For a few years now, we’ve played a game of ‘black box’ roulette, using AI that predicts the future based on the past. But in a world of sudden market shifts and unprecedented global change, the past is no longer a reliable map. We are entering the era of Automated Reasoning. This is the shift from AI that guesses to AI that proves. It’s a market for explainable systems that is set to hit nearly ten billion dollars this year, doubling by 2032. Because today, leaders don’t just need an answer; they need the logic behind it. They need a ‘glass box’ they can trust. Scott Wiltamuth, Director of Software Development for Agentic AI and Automated Reasoning at AWS, alongside Mary Martin, Managing Director and Senior Partner at BCG and Varun Chitkara, Senior Vice President of Global Product & Technology at ADP join host Tom Parker.

Sources: FT Resources

This content is paid for by AWS and is produced in partnership with the Financial Times' Commercial Department. The views and claims expressed are those of the guests alone and have not been independently verified by The Financial Times.
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According to the World Economic Forum's Global Cybersecurity Outlook 2026 report, we've hit a historic tipping point. For the first time, CEOs now rank cyber-enabled fraud as their number one digital concern, officially overtaking ransomware. The threat is no longer about a hacker locking your files, it's about a machine mimicking your identity. But why does this matter? Well, because when trust collapses, the economy stops. If you can't verify who you're paying, you stop paying. If you can't verify who you're hiring, you stop growing. We are no longer just defending data. We are defending the very possibility of digital trust. Today we're discussing the rise of digital ghosts, the death of the voice call and the defensive technologies emerging to save our digital identities, economies and society itself. Joining Tom Parker to examine the future of fraud in our digital world are three experts, Hubert Behaghel, CPTO at Veriff, an identity verification software company, Gareth Murray, Financial Crime Senior Director at Monzo and Simon Miller, Director of Policy at CIFAS.

Sources: FT Resources, WEF, KBV Research, Mordor Intelligence, Juniper Research.

This content is paid for by Veriff and is produced in partnership with the Financial Times' Commercial Department. The views and claims expressed are those of the guests alone and have not been independently verified by The Financial Times.

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As the UN’s Secretary-General António Guterres said in July this year, “Now, we are on the cusp of a new era. Fossil fuels are running out of road. The sun is rising on a clean energy age.” Renewables and nuclear did reach an historic 40% share of global electricity generation in 2024, with renewables alone supplying roughly 32% of global power for the first time. But the length of this road and the speed we are travelling down it, will determine the success of the world’s energy transition. In this episode we explore where we are in the energy transition, the challenges, technologies and the policies. Joining Tom as guests are Elisabeth Cremona, Senior Energy Analyst for Europe at Ember, Massimo Battaini, CEO of Prysmian and María Mendiluce, CEO of We Mean Business Coalition.

Sources: FT Resources

This content is paid for by Prysmian and is produced in partnership with the Financial Times' Commercial Department. The views and claims expressed are those of the guests alone and have not been independently verified by The Financial Times.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The fourth industrial revolution is upon us in every way. Technologies, such as Artificial Intelligence, are growing up fast. So too must the humans that deploy and use it. Evolution is usually a slow process, yet businesses around the world must quickly reconfigure the way they work to gain the advantages that technology can afford. In this episode three experts join Tom to look at the human part of tech transformation, how we are adapting to work alongside tech such as AI, and how organisations are transforming their business operations to best adapt to the current and future needs of a tech savvy workforce. They are, Natalie Douglas, CFO at Liberty Blume, Professor Ashley Braganza, Chair in Business Transformation and Founder of Brunel University’s Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Kevin Frechette, Co-Founder and CEO of Fairmarkit.

Sources: FT Resources

This content is paid for by Liberty Blume and is produced in partnership with the Financial Times' Commercial Department. The views and claims expressed are those of the guests alone and have not been independently verified by The Financial Times.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Late-stage financing plays a critical role in the growth trajectory of technology scale-ups, particularly as they transition from early innovation phases to market dominance and potential exits via IPOs or acquisitions. Larger capital injections can be found from multiple avenues; VCs, private equity, corporate investors, family offices, sovereign wealth funds and growth-focused hedge funds. While the volume of capital to European growth stage companies since 2015 has tripled, there is still a funding gap and bottlenecks in Europe compared to the US.
In this episode three experts discuss Europe's growth stage tech landscape, the funding available, challenges ahead and what is needed to build more billion dollar companies in Europe. They are Luca Ferrari, Co-Founder & CEO of Bending Spoons, Hilary Gosher, Managing Director at Insight Partners and Tommaso Fassati, Head of Wealth Management Italy at BNP Paribas.

Sources: FT Resources, Atomico, Roland Berger, Anthropic, European Commission, Semiconductor Industry Association, Korn Ferry

This content is paid for by BNP Paribas and is produced in partnership with the Financial Times' Commercial Department. The views and claims expressed are those of the guests alone and have not been independently verified by The Financial Times.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.