What's Next In: Making data work harder in Atlanta to mint opportunities for all
26m
·
What's Next In
·
Atlanta routinely makes the “best cities” lists — best places for creatives, best places to start a business, cities with the most Fortune 500 company headquarters, and, most recently, it topped Money magazine’s annual “Best Places to Live” ranking.
But Atlanta also finds itself at the top of a far less vaunted list: It ranked first for income equality among large cities, according to the latest U.S. Census data, with experts pointing to deep-rooted racial disparities in a city that is nearly 50% Black.
The innovation for which the city is celebrated has not reaped benefits for all of its citizens, but that can change. In fact, innovative data tools and partners that connect Black families and entrepreneurs to the digital economy could go a long way in creating a more inclusive and equitable city.
In the latest episode of “What’s Next In,” Mastercard’s podcast that informally explores technology, innovation and ideas, host Vicki Hyman chats with Atlanta’s deputy chief equity officer La’Shawn Brown Dudley and Salah Goss and Arturo Franco, both with the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth, on how harnessing data with inclusion in mind can help leaders make smarter decision and use their resources more effectively.
Dudley was part of the inaugural cohort of Data for Equity, a 10-week program that brought together equity, technology and data officers from around the country to learn new ways to use the power of data to advance economic inclusion. Launched by the Centre for Public Impact and the Center for Inclusive Growth, the program is part of Mastercard’s $500 million In Solidarity initiative to narrow the racial opportunity gap, with a focus on Atlanta and six other American cities.
In Atlanta, that work includes a $950,000 grant to the Russell Innovation Center for Entrepreneurs to support RICE’s Big IDEAS curriculum, including education, technical and financial assistance, and support of Operation HOPE’s 1 Million Black Businesses initiative, to create and grow Black-owned businesses through financial wellness education, small business coaching and help accessing capital.
The episode What's Next In: Making data work harder in Atlanta to mint opportunities for all from the podcast What's Next In has a duration of
26:17. It was first published
More episodes from What's Next In
What's Next In: Why cyber scams are on the rise
With rise of advanced technology, fraudsters aretricking consumers out of more money than ever before,throughmore channels than ever before: emails, texts,social media,phonecalls.In just the U.S.,consumers reported losingmore than$10 billionto fraud in 2023, a record—and many people are too embarrassed or ashamed to report they’ve been scammed.
In the latest episode of“What’s Next In,”Mastercard’s podcast that informally explores technology, innovation and ideas, host Vicki Hyman chats withChris Reid,the company’sexecutive vice president of Identity Solutions,on the evolution of various fraud and scam tactics,how we’re using technology to combat themandmeasures we’re encouraging customers and consumers alike to take to protect their money.
“The wonderful thing about humans is that we are inherently trusting, and that is what makes society function and be vibrant,” Reid says. “It’s that small subset of criminals who take advantage of that.”
To fight this growing threat,Mastercard last week announcedScam Protect, a suite of products and services powered by AI, biometrics and open banking.“The same cutting-edge technology that can fight fraud can also help identify and protect consumers from scams,” Reid says. “But we’re going beyond tech—we are collaborating with organizations across the ecosystem to fight scams through new technologies and education.”
To hear more fromReid, tune in now.
What's Next In: Rapper Stix on the ‘gift’ of growing up in Watts and giving back
In the latest episode of “What’s Next In,” Mastercard’s podcast that informally explores technology, innovation and ideas, host Vicki Hyman talks with Brandon “Stix” Salaam-Bailey, the Watts-born-and-bred hip-hop artist who is the force behind the ThinkWatts Foundation, the nonprofit delivering an ever-expanding range of programs — from weekly food distribution, environmental justice initiatives, and coding, financial education and entrepreneurship workshops, to name a few — to underserved residents in his community, where the poverty rate is more than twice the national average, and beyond. On the podcast, Stix shares his journey from rapper and producer to activist and social entrepreneur, highlighting some of the success stories he’s shepherded through ThinkWatts, his plans for the foundation’s future, and his reflections on the community that forged him.
What's Next In: Entering the era of empathic AI
In the latest episode of “What’s Next In,” Mastercard’s podcast that informally explores technology,innovation and ideas, host Vicki Hyman chats with Einat Haftel, the chief product officer at Dynamic Yield, the AI-powered experience operating system that helps companies build hyper-personalized digital experiences with great agility and speed. And in a modern world where personalization is key, Shopping Muse, Dynamic Yield’s new virtual digital assistant driven by generative AI, is bringing a new edge to conversational commerce.
“You can go into a store, talk to consultant, say, ‘I have light features and want this makeup,’ and they help you, but you can't do that when you shop online. Shopping Muse is designed to solve exactly that,” she says. Haftel also discusses the future of personalization, how AI is evolving and how that is changing how peopleinteract with it and trust its outputs. “I think AI will actually start to be empathic to the user and we are going to see people adapt,” she says.
What's Next In: Going inside of the AI Garage
In the latest episode of “What’s Next In,” Mastercard’s podcast that informally explores technology, innovation and ideas, host Vicki Hyman chats with Nitendra Rajput, senior vice president and head of Mastercard’s AI Garage, which applies AI at scale across Mastercard, developing new algorithms and collaborating with teams to design and develop new products and services.
Rajput discusses the way cyber criminals are capitalizing on AI, how the company is accelerating the adoption of AI through innovative partnerships, and why it’s critical to put in place guardrails to ensure AI is used responsibly. A researcher and prolific patent developer who started his career in speech recognition, Rajput says AI can help us better understand the world around us – and perhaps better understand ourselves as well.
What's Next In: Building the digital rails to go the last mile
In the latest episode of “What’s Next In,” Mastercard’s podcast that informally explores technology, innovation and ideas, host Vicki Hyman chats with Mastercard's Tara Nathan, the founder of Community Pass, a digital infrastructure that increases access to critical services including healthcare, agriculture and micro-commerce for people in underserved, remote, and frequently offline communities.
As world leaders gather in New York City for the U.N. General Assembly to discuss how to accelerate action on the sustainable development goals, including reducing poverty, hunger, and inequality, Nathan discusses the role the private sector can play in delivering services in a commercially sustainable and scalable way and how people can harness digitization and their own data to improve their lives and livelihoods.
"We're peeling back the layers to a problem and creating solutions," Nathan says. "Digitization is helping to bring critical services and brighter opportunities to people in developing markets — and Mastercard is working to bridge the stiff digital divide."