The Technology Year in Stories: March 2024

December 23, 2024

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KPMG has announced it has formed a strategic alliance with Databricks

We look at the articles that made the news in technology in 2024. Today, in March, we featured KPMG & Databricks alliance & Women in Tech

KPMG & Databricks Form Alliance to Boost AI, Data Innovation

KPMG has announced it has formed a strategic alliance with Databricks, a leader in data and AI, to help the firm’s clients in the UK get the most out of their data and AI and empower them to innovate at a faster pace.

Research has found that generative AI (Gen AI) could add an additional £31bn (US$39.5bn) to the UK economy per year, according to KPMG estimates.

The Databricks alliance, the company says, will assist its clients to unlock this opportunity and help them reach their wider business objectives.

KPMG’s technical expertise, in combination with the Databricks Data Intelligence Platform, will help clients innovate using an open, scalable platform to meet all their data-driven requirements.

Databricks’ leading data intelligence platform forms an open data management architecture that enhances data analysis and helps foster greater collaboration.

“It is impossible to achieve value from investments in AI without good data foundations, including data accuracy and access,” comments Ian West, Head of Alliances at KPMG UK.

“With AI moving at such pace, organisations need to know that any tools they use or build are developed on the best data architecture with an appropriate data strategy.

That’s why we are thrilled to announce our alliance with Databricks, so we can support our clients, whether it’s to better utilise their data and innovate at speed or to deliver them more robust audits.”

International Women’s Day: Women in Technology in 2024

According to research conducted by Women in Tech, women still only account for around 26% of people working in IT today.

Whilst this is an improvement from the figure of 19% in 2019, work is still needed to reach gender equality.

While progress is ongoing, the prevailing culture is beginning to change. As highlighted by Deloitte in recent research, “many large tech companies have made public commitments to improving gender diversity, including increasing women in their technical and leadership ranks.”

Highlighting the importance of these issues, International Women's Day – held each year on 8 March – is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women. The day also marks a call to action for accelerating women's equality.

International Women's Day 2024 campaign theme is 'Inspire Inclusion'

IWD has occurred for well over a century, with the first IWD gathering in 1911 supported by over a million people.

With the focus of this International Women’s Day is investing in women to create stronger economies, improve innovation, and ensure a better world for future generations, Technology Magazine hears from thought leaders working to promote female talent in their respective companies and sectors about what needs to be done to ensure real change within the industry.

The need to nurture talent and inspire inclusion

Businesses must take it upon themselves to nurture talent and hire a variety of people from different backgrounds.

“As business leaders, it is our responsibility to inspire inclusion within our organisations,” emphasises Julie Kae, VP of Sustainability and DE&I at software company Qlik.

“This is particularly pertinent as new technologies are developed. This speaks to a bigger ongoing issue of gender imbalance in technology, right from STEM education at school, and it is imperative that we do whatever we can to balance these numbers.”