Recruiting with AI and other tech stories you may have missed

February 8, 2023 9:00 AM

Artificially intelligent bots in the war for talent; Intuit expands its QB Network; and eight other developments from the past month and how they'll impact your clients and your firm.

1. Your next job recruiter might be an AI bot

NicoElNino - Fotolia

According to recent studies, 35% to 45% of companies plan to employ AI-driven recruiting software to aid in picking and interviewing job candidates in 2023. Last year, three in four businesses increased how much they invested in talent acquisition tech with 70% planning to continue that investment this year, even with a recession on the horizon. (Source: Computer World)

Why this is important for your firm and clients: AI recruiting tools are becoming more common among larger companies and will soon be affordably available for smaller firms. They can offer an objective way to qualify potential candidates. But there are some concerns about their bias.

2. QB Business Network opens to millions of SMBs

Intuit's Ariege Misherghi speaking at QuickBooks Connect

Global financial technology platform Intuit QuickBooks recently expanded the Intuit QuickBooks Business Network to make it available to millions of small and midsized businesses throughout the United States. This expansion now makes it one of the biggest B2B networks geared toward automating and accelerating B2B payments and enhancing cash flow. (Source: Business Wire)

Why this is important for your firm and clients: With so many businesses already using QuickBooks, why not provide a way to connect them to each other so that transactions can be faster? Kind of a no-brainer. In addition to the network's other benefits, the things that will help my clients will be the ability for a business to send an invoice directly to a customer's or vendor's QuickBooks account, having QuickBooks instantly create a bill for the customer or vendor using auto-populated information from the invoice, and then being able to review, save and pay that bill through the variety of payment options available within QuickBooks.

3. Major banks teaming up on a digital wallet

Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg

According to recent reports, Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, and Wells Fargo are among some of the big banks reportedly developing a digital wallet to link with credit and debit cards in an effort to rival PayPal and Apple Pay. The digital wallet would first launch with Mastercard and Visa, which have already agreed to the partnership. It has been confirmed that the wallet product will launch sometime this year. (Source: CNBC).

Why this is important for your firm and clients: Quietly but increasingly, mobile payments are becoming more common, particularly amongst younger shoppers. It took a while, but it's happening. Clearly the banks are noticing this and are jumping on board. As business owners, we need to make sure our customers can easily pay for our products and services with their smartphone. Period. If we're not giving that option then we're going to miss out on revenues.

4. Microsoft 365 Basic now $1.99 a month

David Paul Morris/Bloomberg

Microsoft 365 Basic — which launched at the end of January — will cost $1.99 a month with the aim of replacing the 100GB storage option on OneDrive with some additional features as well. Those features include enhanced security capabilities such as data encryption for Outlook and virus/malware scanning, and an ad-free experience for Outlook web and mobile. (Source: The Verge)

Why this is important for your firm and clients: This could be a good tool for freelancers and microbusinesses. And as you grow you can migrate to more powerful Office 365 features.

5. Jobber embeds finance to help home services businesses

Jobber — the home services management platform and app — is rolling out new digital features to help build confidence and cash flow for service providers. (Source: Pymnts)

Why this is important for your firm and clients: Some of the new capabilities include digital invoicing, establishing recurring payments, offering service providers consumer financing, and improvements to the scheduling side of the platform. If your clients provide home services, Jobber is a great app to consider as it combines many of the features they'll need under one roof.

6. The best printers for under $300

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Editors at The Huffington Post recently asked small-business owners to share their picks for the best printers costing less than $300. Picks include the Canon PIXMA MG3620 for small-batch printing, the Canon Image Class MF455dw for reliable printing and faxing, the HP Deskjet 3755 for its easy set-up and wireless capabilities, and the HP OfficeJet Pro 8025e for its compact size and easy set-up. You can read about all of the picks here. (Source: Huff Post)

Why this is important for your firm and clients: Amazing that we still use printers, but we do. I found this piece useful for clients looking to upgrade and replace these devices.

7. Must-have technologies to rapidly boost a small biz

Editors at the San Diego Newspaper Group recently shared their top picks for the must-have technologies that will rapidly boost small businesses. (Source: SDNews)

Why this is important for your firm and clients: Tech picks include CRM systems to help manage customers, the cloud for data storage, cybersecurity technology to protect important data, financial management software to help streamline financial resources, live chat to help customers directly, project management tools to streamline processes, and online instant quote capabilities to boost efficiency.

8. Four up-and-coming employee mobile apps

Mobile apps for Google, Amazon, Facebook and the Apple Store

LIONEL BONAVENTURE/Photographer: LIONEL BONAVENTURE

Tech website Computer World recently shared four employee mobile apps to keep an eye on this year. Skedulo helps streamline the workflow for workers whose jobs don't have them sitting behind a desk, such as retail and delivery workers. 15Five enables employees to monitor their progress while letting them communicate feedback to their supervisors. When I Work is an easy-to-use app that streamlines team messaging, time tracking, and scheduling. Lastly, ClickUp is a productivity app that streamlines workflows while providing clear goals and data. (Source: Computer World)

Why this is important for your firm and clients: I'm torn between using these apps or leaning more on collaboration offerings from the big tech companies like Microsoft and Google. But people have their preferences and the user experience is important. If you're looking to improve teamwork, collaboration and productivity within your group this year — particularly if you have remote workers — it's worth taking an hour out and reviewing these applications.

9. ChatGPT in M’soft Office could change the workplace

Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto/Photographer: Jakub Porzycki/Nur

According to recent reports, Microsoft is making plans to add the chatbot technology from OpenAI — known as ChatGPT — to PowerPoint, Outlook, Word, and its entire productivity suite. While the integration is expected to contribute to productivity when powering tasks such as emails, reports and presentations, many experts point out concerns such as ChatGPT's lack of accuracy, privacy issues, and more. (Source: Venture Beat)

Why this is important for your firm and clients: Microsoft has made a significant financial investment in OpenAI and clearly thinks that the technology backing ChatGPT is the future. If you haven't tried it out, you should. ChatGPT is open-source and free to the public. I'll be researching and writing in this space on some of the potential Office 365 integrations that we'll be enjoying in the coming weeks.

10. Atlas robot has grown a set of hands

Atlas — the most advanced humanoid robot from Boston Dynamics — now has new capabilities. Boston Dynamics recently designed a set of hands and in a recent YouTube video showed off Atlas doing physical work. Up to this point, the robot's primary abilities included locomotive tasks such as walking. The recent version of Atlas has hands with grips to allow it to pick things up and perform tasks. (Source: ARS Technica)

Why this is important for your firm and clients: Between AI-powered platforms like ChatGPT and robotics like Atlas, the workplace is going to be significantly changing in the near future. This is how the marketplace is responding to a lack of lower-skilled workers — and workers that demand or cost too much.