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6 Disruptive Influences of Artificial Intelligence

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9 years ago

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The world has gone digital. In fact, we are approaching the Fourth Industrial Revolution, also described as Industry 4.0: an age in which a range of new technologies is expectedly fusing the physical, digital and biological worlds in addition to impacting all disciplines, economies and industries.

This is an age marked by emerging technology breakthroughs in a number of fields, including artificial intelligence, robotics, augmented reality, nanotechnology, quantum computing, biotechnology, The Internet of Things, 3D printing and driver-less vehicles, among others.
One of these emerging technologies, Artificial intelligence or AI, as it is commonly referred to, has the potential to cause significant disruptions to many established industries, presenting amazing new ways for business leaders and individuals to simplify complex tasks.

According to the Research and Development Unit of Yudala, Nigeria’s fastest growing e-commerce outfit, here are six ways Artificial Intelligence will shake up things in the corporate world.

Double-edged impact on jobs and employment opportunities
Artificial intelligence promotes the growing reliance on machines which possess the ability to perform a wide range of physical and cognitive tasks, admittedly with more efficiency and accuracy.
This poses a great deal of concern for the future as these machines may put many jobs at risk and ultimately reduce human employment.
While these concerns are legitimate, research posits that the rise of artificial intelligence and automation may, nevertheless, have a double-edged impact on employment: negative and positive.
In the negative sense, AI may displace humans by directly replacing them in tasks previously performed by these workers.
On the positive side, the deployment of machine learning and artificial intelligence may end up increasing the demand for labour in other industries or create new jobs or openings as a result of automation.

Data analysis and presentation
With the emergence of machine learning which is a direct off-shoot of artificial intelligence, the task of crunching numbers, analyzing data and presenting this as useable information just got easier.
A single supercomputer using artificial intelligence running on continuous machine learning will definitely out-perform the work of ten or more humans working with spreadsheets to analyze and interpret the same amount of data.
Most machine learning apps have the capability of, not only analyzing huge amounts of data in record times, but also reducing errors to the barest minimum –  a factor that makes them logically preferable to high-cost and error-prone human accounting or consultancy teams.

Budgeting
Closely related to the foregoing is the refinements and research-backed approach to the process of budgeting which AI lends.
For most businesses, budgeting is often carried out haphazardly on a yearly basis, with funds allocated in similar patterns to various activities and business units.
This inadvertently results in a situation where certain business units get more working capital while other units which yield more returns struggle with the meagre figures allocated to them.
By deploying artificial intelligence, business leaders can generate valid information on the performances of various business units and gauge more accurately the returns on the investments made on specific activities.
This will potentially cause a major overhaul of existing budgeting systems used by corporate organizations and bring more value and objectivity to the entire process.

More personalized marketing
The exciting benefits of artificial intelligence will also be keenly felt in the field of marketing, as advances in the field will usher in landmark advances in the marketing value chain, leading to more personalized experiences for consumers.
Through AI tools, marketing will assume an automated dimension, enabling companies to deliver a richer, more personalized experience for all classes of consumers and resulting in stronger connections between brands and consumers.
Ultimately, these new approaches will build brand affinity/loyalty and positively impact bottom lines. Presently, a number of organizations are deploying artificial intelligence principles to simplify the processes involved in various branches of marketing including email marketing, SEO, mobile, social media, among others.
Global e-commerce giant, Amazon, is playing a leading role in this aspect –  a step that is on the verge of being replicated by Yudala – by relying on a series of algorithms to determine what customers are likely to buy or require next, with these suggestions and creatives sent to the target customers via customized emails in a process that is entirely automated.

Recruitment/Human Resources
AI will radically transform the recruitment and human capital management function by infusing more objectivity and transparency into the entire process.
This will equip business leaders or owners with the requisite insight to take more informed decision on hiring, compensation, promotion and gender pay disparity/biases in the work-place.
By leveraging the benefits of advanced statistical tools and machine learning, AI can help organizations recognize and reward performance more objectively among the entire work-force through the detection and elimination of partiality, imbalances and subjective appraisals.

Banking and finance
The entire financial services sector will also be disrupted by the emergence of artificial intelligence solutions and applications.
 A recent research survey carried out by The Economist revealed that 49% of banking executives believe the traditional transactional banking model will be dead by 2020.
Through AI, banks, insurance companies, asset/wealth management firms and capital markets will have a plethora of cutting-edge tools that will streamline and bring unimaginable simplicity and ease to their core financial processes and customer service offerings.
The potential is limitless. Robo-advisors are being mooted in the sphere of asset management; banks will expectedly rely on chatbots to boost customer experience while other AI tools will simply thorny reconciliations, reporting of earnings, financial analysis and asset allocation, among others.
AI will also help insurance firms process claims, streamline their processes and uncover fraud. Understandably, a number of financial institutions are awake to this reality, head-hunting and mopping up fintech talents, in a sort of arms race to ensure they are not left behind in the sweeping wave of tech-mediated changes that is afoot in the sector.

What is Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence (AI), also known as machine intelligence, MI) is intelligence exhibited by machines, rather than humans or other animals (natural intelligence, NI).

In computer science, the field of AI research defines itself as the study of “intelligent agents”: any device that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its chance of success at some goal.

Colloquially, the term “artificial intelligence” is applied when a machine mimics “cognitive” functions that humans associate with other human minds, such as “learning” and “problem solving”. AI research is divided into subfields that focus on specific problems, approaches, the use of a particular tool, or towards satisfying particular applications.

Artificial intelligence is not one technology but rather a group of related technologies – including natural language processing (improving interactions between computers and human or “natural” languages); machine learning (computer programs that can “learn” when exposed to new data) and expert systems (software programmed to provide advice) – that help machines sense, comprehend and act in ways similar to the human brain. 

These technologies are behind innovations such as virtual agents (computer-generated, animated characters serving as online customer service representatives); identity analytics (solutions combining big data and advanced analytics to help manage user access and certification) and recommendation systems (algorithms helping match users and providers of goods and services) which have already transformed the ways in which companies look at the overall customer experience.


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esentry 2025 Report Shows Healthcare, Financial Services and Telecoms as Staging Grounds for Increased Cyberattacks in Africa

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11 hours ago

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February 26, 2026

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Cyber adversaries targeting African organisations are increasingly shifting away from opportunistic attacks toward deliberate, sector-specific campaigns aimed at the continent’s most critical digital infrastructures, according to the esentry 2025 Annual Report released by esentry, Lagos-based Africa’s leading indigenous Managed Security Service Provider (MSSP).

The report identifies healthcare, financial services, and telecommunications as the primary staging grounds for high-velocity cyberattacks, reflecting a growing focus on sectors that underpin economic stability, public welfare, and digital connectivity across Africa.

The findings are drawn from one of the largest cybersecurity datasets analysed in the region. Over the course of 2025, esentry processed more than 31 billion security events, generating 3.5 million alerts and successfully blocking over 15,000 malicious attempts. This monitoring scale shows that, while traditional financial institutions remain a core target, the threat landscape has expanded to include digital lending platforms, healthcare systems that store sensitive personal data, and telecom operators responsible for national and regional connectivity.

Within the healthcare sector, the report highlights ransomware as the most acute risk, with attackers frequently exploiting exposed Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) services to compromise patient data and disrupt essential medical operations. In financial services, organisations are facing a surge in credential abuse, insider-related threats, and info-stealer malware designed to enable fraud and unauthorised access. Telecommunications providers are increasingly targeted by highly tailored phishing campaigns and attacks on exposed web services, which aim to harvest credentials and compromise customer data.

Commenting on the findings, Gbolabo Awelewa, Chief Business Officer at esentry, said the nature of cyber threats across Africa has evolved significantly. “The threats we are seeing today are deliberate, informed, and carefully tailored to local enterprises. Attackers are exploiting trusted access and moving quietly within networks, which makes early detection critical. Our coordinated cybersecurity model, spanning Defence, Intelligence, Offence, and Security Engineering, allows us to combine scale, speed, and deep contextual insight to detect and neutralise threats before they escalate,” Awelewa said.

A defining trend identified in the report is the shift from overt system exploitation to the abuse of legitimate access. By leveraging compromised credentials and ‘living-off-the-land’ techniques, attackers can blend into routine enterprise operations and significantly delay detection. This approach has compressed the attack lifecycle, enabling adversaries to move from initial access to full operational impact in fewer than 15 days.

To counter this acceleration, the report emphasises the importance of early detection and automated response. esentry says it currently contains low-complexity incidents in under 90 seconds, using a combination of structured threat hunting and centralised telemetry to anticipate and absorb attacker pressure rather than reacting after damage has occurred.

As African organisations continue to digitise, the esentry 2025 Annual Report positions itself as a critical reference point for understanding the continent’s evolving cyber threat environment. The report concludes that protecting Africa’s digital trust will require a shift away from fragmented security tools toward disciplined, coordinated defence frameworks, what esentry describes as a unified Phalanx formation.


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AfDB, UNDP Launch $10Bn AI Initiative for Africa

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1 day ago

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February 25, 2026

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The African Development Bank Group (AfDB) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) have launched an ambitious $10 billion project to support the adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) across the continent.

The 10 Billion Initiative intends to accelerate ethical AI adoption and inclusive digital economic growth in Africa.

The initiative follows the Nairobi AI Forum, which took place earlier this month in Kenya and brought together governments, private sector leaders, development partners, and tech innovators to define pathways for impactful AI adoption.

According to the organisations, the strategy is a co-designed collaboration between the Bank Group, UNDP, and commercial partners that aims to raise up to $10 billion by 2035.

The resources will be used to create up to 40 million new jobs across the continent by 2035, through targeted investments that provide the groundwork for AI and accelerate widespread adoption in everything from entrepreneurship and regional data infrastructure to policy frameworks and skill development.

Nicholas Williams, AfDB Group ICT operations division manager, commented: “As a leading multilateral development institution, the bank is leveraging its comparative advantage to ensure Africa is not left behind in the AI era.

“The AI 10 Billion Initiative paves the way for expanded partnerships and sustained investments that will accelerate AI entrepreneurship, strengthen data and infrastructure ecosystems, and support inclusive growth across the continent.”

 


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Firm Identifies RenEngine Loader Distributed Through Pirated Games and Software

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2 days ago

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February 24, 2026

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Kaspersky Threat Research has revealed its analysis of RenEngine, a malware loader that has recently gained public attention. Kaspersky identified RenEngine samples as early as March 2025, with its solutions already protecting users from the threat at that time.

Beyond the cracked games highlighted in recent reports, Kaspersky researchers discovered that attackers created dozens of websites distributing RenEngine through pirated software, including graphics editors like CorelDRAW. This expands the known attack surface beyond the gaming community to anyone seeking unlicensed software.

Kaspersky has recorded incidents in Russia, Brazil, Turkey, Spain and Germany, among other countries. The distribution pattern indicates opportunistic attacks rather than targeted operations.

When Kaspersky first identified RenEngine, the loader was delivering the Lumma stealer. Current attacks distribute ACR Stealer as the final payload, and Vidar stealer has also been observed in some infection chains.

The campaign exploits modified versions of games built on the Ren’Py visual novel engine. When users launch infected installers, a fake loading screen appears while malicious scripts execute in the background. The scripts include sandbox detection capabilities and decrypt a payload that initiates a multi-stage infection chain using HijackLoader, a modular malware delivery tool.

“This threat extends beyond pirated games — attackers are using the same technique to distribute malware through cracked productivity software, which broadens the potential victim pool significantly,” said Pavel Sinenko, lead malware analyst at Kaspersky Threat Research. “Game archive formats vary by engine and title. If an engine doesn’t check the integrity of its resources, attackers can embed malware that executes the moment you click play.”

Kaspersky solutions detect RenEngine as Trojan.Python.Agent.nb and HEUR:Trojan.Python.Agent.gen. HijackLoader is detected as Trojan.Win32.Penguish and Trojan.Win32.DllHijacker.


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