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McKinsey's 2020 State of AI Report looks at the adoption, risks, impacts and COVID-19 effects on the use of artificial intelligence in business and manufacturing.

Michael Chui, partner at McKinsey Global Institute, San Francisco, says, "We do think AI is worth the investment, but it requires effective execution to generate significant value, particularly at enterprise scale."

The paper says the companies seeing significant value from AI are continuing to invest in it during the pandemic. Most respondents at high performers say their organizations have increased investment in AI in each major business function in response to the pandemic, while less than 30% of other respondents say the same.

By industry, respondents in automotive and assembly as well as in healthcare services and pharmaceuticals and medical products are the most likely to say their companies have increased investment.

It's International Anti-Corruption Day, and here's a warning for holiday-season shoppers in the UK to follow a new online safety campaign.

Statistics from the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau show that over last year’s holiday shopping period (between November 1 and January 31) there were 17,405 reports of online shopping fraud, resulting in total losses of £13.5 million – an average of £775 per incident.

This year, with an acceleration of online retail due to COVID-19, the threat is even more present.

The UK's National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has launched an advertising campaign called Cyber Aware, which is being supported by Microsoft and other companies. It outlines six key behaviours to protect accounts and devices from the majority of online crime.

Sian John, Chief Security Adviser at Microsoft UK, said, “Let’s make sure the gifts we give this Christmas go to the people we love, not to the fraudsters who just want to steal your money.”

Siemens has achieved its declared intermediate target for carbon reduction

The company has reduced the carbon footprint of its own value chain by more than half (54%) since 2014.

Siemens has therefore exceeded – by four percentage points – its goal of halving its global CO2 emissions by 2020. Including Siemens Energy, the company has reduced its carbon emissions by around 1.2 million tons of CO2 compared to its 2014 levels.

Four levers are being used to reduce carbon emissions: expanding the energy efficiency program, using distributed energy systems, purchasing green power, and reducing emissions in the vehicle fleet. Siemens intends to achieve climate neutrality in its business operations by 2030. The company has recently published these details and other up-to-date information on sustainability.

Read more here.

PensionDanmark has been named European Pension Fund of the Year for the IPE 2020 awards.

A judge said: “With strong ESG credentials and a sound investment strategy with solid execution, PensionDanmark consistently comes up with market leading and outstanding innovation in different aspects of its asset allocation.”

PensionDanmark is Denmark’s largest labour market pension fund and one of the 50 largest pension funds in Europe.

It offers defined contribution pensions, insurance policies and healthcare schemes on the basis of collective agreements covering approximately 710,000 individuals employed in 26,000 companies in the private and public sector.

"Vaccination is the game changer. It’s difficult to plan the next year, but our perspective is hopefully we have the chance to vaccinate our risk groups in the first quarter and have the chance to vaccinate broader parts of society in the second quarter."

Those were the words of Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, speaking at the Forum's latest virtual Great Reset meeting on 2 December. His comments came as the UK became the first country to authorize the use of a new COVID-19 vaccine, with other countries set to follow suit this month.

AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford announced positive high-level results for a coronavirus vaccine at their interim analysis of clinical trials last month.

Their news followed announcements from Pfizer and BioNTech, and Moderna in November, whose coronavirus vaccines were found to be more than 90% effective against the disease.

Russia was one of the first countries to announce the development of a vaccine, named Sputnik V, and RDIF has supported its development and is investing in its mass production.

It was registered by the government's health authorities as safe and effective in August. Over the weekend, Moscow made inoculation with Sputnik V available to workers at the capital's medical, social services, and educational institutions — private or public.

Dr Richard Hatchett, Chief Executive Officer of CEPI, said the world could not underestimate the importance of vaccine news. “The vaccine sequences for Sars-CoV-2 were released on Jan 12, 2020, and we have seen the delivery of phase 3 clinical trial results within 10 months of release of those sequences. That is nothing short of extraordinary.”

“However, vaccines don’t save lives, vaccinations do. The challenge of scaling up manufacturing of these mRNA vaccines and delivering them to the people who need them worldwide will be immense and one of the greatest undertakings in modern times.”

Arnaud Bernaert, Head of the Forum’s Platform for Shaping the Future of Health and Healthcare, said the Forum, including its COVID Action Platform, has worked tirelessly with stakeholders, sharing its commitment to universal access and equity to find solutions to the global pandemic.

“Crucially, our cumulative response to the COVID-19 pandemic continues to focus on a range of initiatives to further mitigate the impact of this crisis, with the help of our partners. From helping companies transition their employees safely back to the workplace, to our Industry Action Group helping communities globally progressively emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic, we are coordinating the relevant stakeholders to address the full scope of the coronavirus impact.”

By 2030, there will be 1.2billion more of us, 70% of us will be living in cities, and one in three of us will be living communally. IKEA future living lab, SPACE10, and design agency Anton & Irene are running One Shared House 2030, a survey of people’s views on co-living. So far, people in 171 countries have taken part.

“Our concept of home is changing – away from the idea of ownership, to seeing it as a service, like many digital platforms have allowed us to do with music, media and cars.” Says Jamiee Williams, SPACE10 project lead for shared living.

As global lockdowns have exacerbated loneliness for many who live alone, more people seem to be turning to the idea of co-living. This trend - like many others - had started before, but has seen an acceleration. Many cities are looking at different housing models that will appeal to a multi-generational demographic. For older people, it means they can benefit from social contact and receive help with errands. For millennials, the shared cost of living is more affordable and it may be the only means for them to enter the housing market. For parents and families, the benefits of shared childcare is attractive.

Whatever happens, the question of how we address the working and living needs of all citizens in a city’s future deserves increased consideration and digital enablement.

Would you like to co-live? Take part in the survey here.