MAIN STREET Alliance (MSA) – the USA’s nationwide network of small business owners advocating for inclusive economic policies – has welcomed the recent legal declaration that Google operates as “a monopolist in violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act”.

This landmark decision is a significant win for small business owners across the nation, ensuring a fairer and more competitive digital marketplace, according to Main Street Alliance.

Judge Amit Mehta’s ruling in the case of United States of America vs Google LLC found that Google had unlawfully maintained its monopoly by excluding rivals from the general search engine market.

This exclusionary conduct, according to Main Street Alliance, has stifled competition, raised prices for advertisers, and deprived consumers of potential higher-quality search alternatives.

Main Street calls it a ‘win’ for small business owners

The Main Street Alliance has long championed fair competition and equitable access to resources for small businesses. The ruling against Google aligns with the alliance’s mission to combat corporate consolidation and advocate for policies that level the playing field for small businesses. 

“This decision is a monumental step towards restoring fairness in the marketplace,” Main Street Alliance executive director, Richard Trent said.

“For too long, small businesses have struggled against the overwhelming dominance of corporate giants like Google. This ruling not only recognises the anti-competitive practices that have disadvantaged small businesses but also sets a precedent for stronger enforcement of antitrust laws.”

Decision helps empower entrepreneurs

Australia is similar to the US in the way that small business are the backbone of the American economy, fostering innovation, creating jobs, and strengthening communities.

However, Main Street Alliance members have pointed out for decades how the monopolistic practices of companies like Google have hindered the growth and success of countless entrepreneurs.

Mr Trent said by paying billions to secure default search engine status on popular devices, Google had effectively prevented competitors from gaining a foothold, “thereby limiting consumer choice and stifling innovation”.
Traditionally, Main Street has been synonymous with bricks-and-mortar businesses, but this ruling has highlighted the “growing importance of online entrepreneurs who also deserve protection from monopolistic overreach”.

“Ensuring a level playing field in the digital marketplace is essential for the success of all small business owners, whether they operate physical stores or online enterprises,” a Main Street Alliance statement read.

Next steps and broader implications

As the case moves into the remedy phase, Main Street Alliance is urging the court to implement measures that will effectively dismantle Google’s monopoly and promote competition.

Potential remedies Main Street put forward include ending exclusive dealing contracts, breaking up Google's various business segments, or requiring the company to share data with competitors.

The Main Street Alliance was founded in 2006, when small business owners in Maine, Washington, Oregon, and a few other states united to advocate for healthcare reform. The campaign shed light on the power of small business organisation and the need for Main Street voices in policy discussions.

Now the Main Street Alliance champions the voices of small business owners nationwide to help create a thriving economy. The alliance cultivates a growing network of entrepreneurs, connecting them with resources to build sustainable enterprises.

Today the Main Street Alliance membership drives state and federal policymaking that “gives a fair shot to small businesses and strengthens communities nationwide”. The alliance focuses on meaningful engagement and research-backed advocacy, building a coalition of citizens and elected leaders committed to giving entrepreneurs a fair shot at success.

www.mainstreetalliance.org

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By Leon Gettler, Talking Business >>

GOLDMAN SACHS predicts that 300 million jobs will be lost or degraded by artificial intelligence (AI).

But Gartner, the company that builds strategies in the IT sector, says AI – and its most popular emination so far, ChatGPT – are net creators of jobs.

Gartner Australia’s vice president of human resources (HR) advisory, Aaron McEwan said it was hard to envisage jobs that would not be impacted by automation – but what automation tends to do is push jobs up the value and complexity bar. 

“There probably will be a handful of jobs that might be eliminated altogether, but the more likely scenario is that these types of technologies impact all jobs and change them,” Mr McEwan told Talking Business.

“A more likely scenario is that parts of people’s jobs will be carved away and automated and generally that tends to be less complex repeatable work,” Mr McEwan said.

Creative, artistic pursuits impacted?

Mr McEwan said with the speed of the adoption of generative AI, areas that were thought to be immune to automation, like the more creative and artistic pursuits, were likely to impacted.

But even then, he said, there were limits to what impact AI could have on artists as it would push that work up the complexity bar.

“So while artists might be in a bit of strife because it’s now cheap and easy to create artworks, I’m not sure the average punter is going to be wanting to hang an AI-generated piece of art on their wall because there will be millions and millions of them, so we’ll be looking for more increasingly interesting work,” Mr McEwan said.

What kind of insurance against AI?

A good example on how AI would change work could in the insurance sector.

Five years ago, the calls coming in to a customer service rep working in a call centre would have been about a change of address or change of policy. All that work now can, and will be, handled by automated processes of chatbots and algorithms.

But we are living in a time when the claims are rising because of the impact of climate change. So people will call in to that rep now when they have lost a house due to a flood or bushfire – and the complexity of those claims will have increased.

“So even though you might not be fielding a bunch of calls about updating policies, the most likely calls they will be taking will be ‘I’ve just lost my house to a natural disaster and I may have even lost members of my family or beloved pets’,” he said.

“So the requirement on the human being that fields that call is a higher order of cognitive complexity but, more importantly, a higher order of emotional complexity.

“So the work just gets harder and more complex, it doesn’t necessarily go away.”

No emotion in AI

So ChatGPT is very good at wordsmithing, but at this stage it does not understand the emotional complexity that goes into communications. Which is why some human vetting is essential with AI.

Mr McEwan said AI would dramatically reduce the cost of software development. It will potentially democratise it and place it in the hands of employees who will become “citizen developers”.

“One of the exciting elements of the future is the degree and speed at which citizen developers will tackle the most annoyingly minute components of people’s work and hopefully eradicate and improve those,” Mr McEwan said.

 “Rather than needing to understand coding, what you need to understand is how to work with a generative AI application, put the right inputs in so that you get the right responses from it.”

www.gartner.com.au

www.leongettler.com

Hear the complete interview and catch up with other topical business news on Leon Gettler’s Talking Business podcast, released every Friday at www.acast.com/talkingbusiness

https://shows.acast.com/talkingbusiness/episodes/talking-business10-interview-with-aaron-mcewan-from-gartner

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THE FEDERAL Government published industry responses for reforms to Australia’s cyber security legislation on Thursday, including those from Macquarie Technology Group, AWS, CyberCX, AISA, Tech Council of Australia, Telstra and others.

In its submission, the Macquarie group calls for the creation of a co-regulatory industry group modelled on the existing Communications Alliance, which it says will foster collaboration with the Australian Signals Directorate and National Cyber Coordinator.

The company also called for smaller businesses not to be exempted from reporting rules, enabling better threat intelligence sharing to support smaller businesses in that regard. Macquarie further called for the government’s proposed Cyber Incident Review Board (CIRB) not to be modelled on the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (as has been suggested), and for business-critical data to be regulated under the Security Of Critical Infrastructure (SOCI) Act, not the Privacy Act.

Other key points raised in the Macquarie submission included not limiting ransomware reporting obligations to businesses of a certain size or threshold; including small businesses in the regulatory process so that threat sharing would be made simpler; the suggestion of what it called a new Cyber Alliance Board to boost collaboration; the Federal Government taking a lead from other co-regulatory approaches, such as those used in the telecommunications sector; and looking at other models both national and international. 

In its submission Macquarie gave its views on each of these areas:

“Macquarie is however concerned about limiting this [ransomware] reporting obligation to businesses of a certain size or threshold. This concern is twofold. Firstly, Macquarie repeats its general concerns regarding exceptions to cyber security standards. In order to close the gaps in our current legislative and regulatory framework for cyber security (an aim of the Paper), we need a fulsome legislative response rather than have specific businesses not subject to the regimes.

“Macquarie submits that the way to assist small businesses and the perception that they may not be in a position to absorb the additional regulatory burden imposed by a new reporting obligation is to make the threat sharing as simple as possible.

“We strongly acknowledge the importance of this collaboration [between the ASD Cyber Coordinator] and have considered the issue in detail and suggest that Government consider the establishment of a Cyber Alliance Board to assist this objective.

“To best achieve outcomes while working together we suggest the Australian Government look to other co-regulatory approaches to support and encourage industry self-regulation as models for best practice. The telco sector in specific, which is a related field (with technology, data and connectivity being at the core), provides a useful precedent for co-regulation.

“The co-regulatory model, or Cyber Alliance Board, could focus specifically on co-regulatory and legislative matters while keeping the existing [Trusted Information Sharing Network] TISN, industry and security discussions separate. For example, the current SOCI reviews the subject of this paper and those scheduled for 2025 would clearly benefit from a legislative guidance from key cyber industry stakeholders. 

“The United States’ Cyber Safety Review Board (CSRB) is a potential model [for the CIRB]. However, we disagree that the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) is a precedent that should be followed. The ATSB was formed on 1 July 1999 and it investigates transport safety matters. This is a very established area with known and recognised risks and solutions which have been drawn from decades of research and data. Cyber is far less known.

“We have heard some feedback from members of industry that the best place for regulating business critical data is the Privacy Act. We strongly disagree. The Privacy Act does not provide guidance and regulation on how to best store data and respond to breaches. The SOCI regime does. The Government must look beyond an individual rights approach which the Privacy Act provides.”

Macquarie’s full submission can be read here. 

www.macquarietechnologygroup.com

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MORE THAN two-thirds of Australia’s top tech leaders say artificial intelligence (AI) is on track to be the defining technology trend for 2024.

That is the conclusion of research just released by the Tech Council of Australia (TCA) in partnership with Datacom. The report also highlights key growth opportunities and challenges.

TCA acting CEO, Ryan Black said, “With continued AI innovation and adoption seen as the defining tech trend of 2024, Australia needs to make sure it creates the right environment to capture the huge economic and productivity benefits. Generative AI alone has the potential to add up to $115 billion to the Australian economy annually by 2030. 

“This rapidly evolving technology can drive economic value through two main channels: improving existing businesses through productivity and quality gains, and creating new products and services.
 
“While increasing awareness will help drive AI innovation and adoption, it will need to be coupled with greater regulatory certainty and a clear national plan for growing Australia’s AI capabilities. The 2024 Federal Budget provides an opportunity to continue this important work,” Mr Black said.

“Tech leaders have also rated cyber security as an ongoing area of focus. Major cyber attacks and data breaches in recent years have demonstrated the urgent need to uplift cyber resilience.

“This will require sustained and ongoing action by governments, businesses and the broader community.”

Tech leaders look to quantum and space

The survey results also demonstrate the tech sector is thinking ahead to other emerging technology trends on the horizon. Nearly one-in-six tech leaders surveyed think deep tech areas such as quantum and space could overtake AI as the defining tech trend for 2024.

“While AI is absolutely front of mind, the results show that emerging technologies in lesser-known areas of the tech sector may become dark horse trends this year,” Mr Black said.
 
Datacom Australia managing director Alexandra Coates said, “We know tech adoption comes in waves, and at any point, a single form of technology can gain prominence fast.

“Advances in deep-tech areas like quantum technology and space are on the horizon, but as technology progresses, cyber security threats will continue to affect businesses, and therefore, a stronger emphasis on data protection solutions, such as zero-trust architecture and security, will be a priority for our country's top tech leaders,” Ms Coates said.

The report also notes the role Australia’s tech sector plays as it continues its trajectory of growth as a significant part of our economy and emphasises the need to support scaling companies to ensure they can retain local talent and grow in a small market.
 
“It is great to see that insights from the report reflect the optimism of our tech sector and its significant contribution to the economy,” TCA’s Mr Black said.
 
“Australia’s tech leaders see the potential for growth and the opportunity from AI and emphasise Australia’s key strengths as a tech sector, including great local talent, collaborative working culture and a great lifestyle. However, our tech leaders are honest about some of our biggest challenges, noting Australia is a small market, which can hinder opportunities for growth and create the need for international expansion for many Australian companies.”
 
“Importantly, many of these challenges are shared across the economy and with government, which highlights the continued need to work together with the tech sector and government on ways to support and harness our scaling tech companies and ways for greater tech adoption across the economy.”

Key insights:

• More than two-thirds of tech leaders expect AI to be the defining technology trend for 2024.
• 1 in 6 surveyed tech leaders think deep-tech areas such as quantum and space can overtake AI as the defining trend of 2024.
• 50% of respondents identify overseas growth as a priority and number one opportunity for 2024.
• 67% of tech leaders see Australia as distinct, with a special set of strengths and weaknesses compared to Silicon Valley (i.e. other tech hubs).
• Overwhelmingly, more than 61% of respondents said the number one change that would positively impact tech sector growth in 2024 would be to introduce tech adoption or investment incentives.
• More than 50% of tech leaders have an impact or Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) strategy in place.

Technology leaders comment

In response to the Australian Tech Leaders Survey 2024 from the Tech Council of Australia and Datacom, a range of Australian technology leaders put forward their views.

Business should ‘be pragmatic’ about AI

Airwallex managing director and general manager for Australia and New Zealand, Luke Latham said, “There's obviously a lot of excitement about AI, particularly since it has been normalised with ‘generative’ use cases and the potential impact on internal productivity and product development, but businesses should be pragmatic about its adoption.

“AI’s efficacy will ultimately be determined by the underlying data to inform these tools. After all, its outputs will only ever be as good as its inputs, so investment in getting the foundations right is vital, without that businesses will struggle to yield these aspirational results.

“The current economic climate has seen focus and recalibration in corporate and labour market dynamics and 2024 will be no different than the prior year – investments in operational excellence and people will wield the most compounding impact on businesses in 2024.

“Organisations should be focused on fostering a strong, purpose-driven culture which aligns the workforce with the company's core values and drives innovation.”
 

Generative AI can transform task management 

Learning and development content platform, Go1co-CEO, Chris Eigeland said generative AI (GenAI) would transform the management of daily tasks.

“GenAI and immersive experiences will have a significant impact on our lives this year, both personally and professionally. GenAI will transform how we manage and complete our daily tasks, which will galvanize our creative energy and unlock new learning experiences.
 
“GenAI will redesign how we work – shifting from software as the ‘librarian’ of our information to software as our ‘advisor.’

“With Apple now entering the spatial computing market, it is now impossible for companies to ignore the immersive environment – and as the affordability of headsets improves, learning and training on the job is a prime area to watch. Immersive learning will be key, as it facilitates new ways of learning through different formats, styles, and modalities.

“These two leading trends will force trust and integrity technology to emerge in the coming year. Verifying the authenticity of content will become increasingly difficult and new players will emerge to match the threat.”
 

Stepping beyond machine learning

Residential and commercial real estate platform innovator REA Group’s chief product and audience officer, Melina Cruickshank said AI was the logical extension to the machine learning systems the company had been developing and utilising for many years.

“I’m not surprised to see AI and cyber security at the top of the list for 2024 tech trends.AI offers significant opportunities for businesses and at REA we continue to heavily invest in implementation and experimentation as the technology develops.

“Machine learning has been a key enabler of realestate.com.au’s consumer personalisation strategy for many years and the next step as we further leverage AI to add value for our customers and enhance our consumer experience is exciting.
 
“Millions of people turn to realestate.com.au every month and new technology allows us to make a genuine difference in how Australians buy, rent, sell, and finance property. We must not forget that although AI has the power to drive innovative product development, along with greater productivity for businesses, it’s my view that the supreme creativity of humans will still have its place.
 
“As technology advances, cyber security and data privacy must remain at the top of the priority list for all organisations. Rising expectations from consumers and increasing privacy obligations mean we need to look beyond our direct operations when we think about risk mitigation.

“We know anyone can be targeted, and investing in these areas remains a top priority for REA and should be so for all businesses."

Financial services platform sees AI as a security aid

Real-time, account-to-account payments infrastructure innovator Zepto CEO, Chris Jewell said both AI and better payments technologies will develop to improve the industry’s speed and reliability.

Mr Jewell said in terms of AI, “Working together as an industry to drive down the unacceptable level of scams and  raud targeting Australians continues to be front and centre for us as a financial infrastructure business.

“I expect this year we will see further innovations in AI used to help the industry fight this fight.”

“From a payments technology perspective, we’re going to see momentum and growth in real-time payments, particularly in regards to PayTo. Towards the end of last year, a 2030 retirement date was set for the country's legacy direct entry payments workhorse, BECS.

“Having that line in the sand has been a catalyst for vital conversations about transitioning to modern digital payment alternatives that will create more value for our economy, for businesses, and consumers.”

www.techcouncil.com.au

www.datacom.com

www.airwallex.com

www.go1.com

www.realestate.com.au  www.realcommercial.com.au

www.zepto.com.au

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