The number of electric aviation projects is soaring, and with some plans involving aircraft seating more than 100 passengers, this market will not just be for small, light air taxis. The technology could help curb emissions and ultimately make flying cheaper, but there are still massive challenges to overcome, including the weight of batteries, engines’ efficiency, and the heat generated at high altitudes.
A raft of new technologies is set to fundamentally change the way we live, work and relate to one another. Individually, each piece of tech is a game changer. Collectively, they’re revolutionary. Explore the infographic.
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For big, established consumer-products manufacturers, growing - or even just maintaining - market share has become a bigger task than ever as the rise of so-called challenger brands make inroads into mature markets.
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The race for delivery drones is gathering speed. Walmart, Amazon, Uber and DHL are among the companies aiming to get items to people more quickly and cheaply, especially in traffic-congested cities.
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Computer vision is a hugely promising technology. It covers applications across dozens of industries ranging from medicine to self-driving cars and even shopping. There’s one small nation at this industry’s forefront: Israel.
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When China emerged as a trading force in the early 2000s, the distances that had always limited international trade suddenly seemed to melt away.
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Driven by technological advances, digital trade now accounts for $2.86tn of the global economy but with non-tariff barriers on the rise, is trust the missing link to fuel international trade?
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Aeolus, the first satellite to measure wind speeds across the entire planet, was launched by the European Space Agency last year. Using advanced laser technology, it’s now providing the planet’s first global patterns of wind behaviour at different heights
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The advent of 5G networks promises to transform how we live and work with increased connectivity and lightning data speeds, but who's set to benefit the most?
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Christine Korwin-Szymanowska, Partner at Strategy& believes the global insurance industry is on the cusp of a seismic transformation, estimating the value of disruption coming to the UK insurance sector to be worth £30bn.
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Almost every day in London's Square Mile, brokers clutching bulky folders stuffed with paper documents and files criss-cross the busy streets en route to one of the city's insurance markets to discuss policies for their commercial clients.
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High performance tyres are still made predominantly from natural rubber, but some experts predict shortages as soon as the 2030s. Now, tyre companies and researchers are looking for alternatives, which include Russian dandelions and the Guayule shrub, as
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The energy sector is undergoing huge transformation, Adrian Del Maestro, Director at Strategy& outlines how our dreams of a cleaner, greener, more efficient world will be driven by the consumer
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Our world is heating up. As carbon emissions rise, scientists hope a new crop will help fight climate change by storing more carbon in its roots.
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Imagine a world in which there is a fridge-sized energy storage battery in the basement of your home, solar panels on your roof and an electric vehicle smart charger installed on your driveway
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Scarcely a week goes by without another major announcement in the world of autonomous vehicles (AVs).
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Precision medicine has the potential to transform the entire healthcare industry with personalised and bespoke treatments, but at what cost?
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Autonomous vehicles have the potential to transform mobility completely, but with major roadblocks such as regulation and policy to overcome, how soon until they become ubiquitous on UK roads?
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Space junk is a massive challenge for a fast-growing satellite industry worth billions of dollars. There are hundreds of thousands of pieces of space junk whizzing around in earth’s orbit and even a fleck of paint can do serious damage.
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It may seem hard to believe but for every person who benefits from taking one of the top 10 selling medical drugs in the US, far more people - between one in four and one in 25, depending on the drug - see no benefit whatsoever.
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Start-ups and industrial giants are racing to create new farm machines that will boost production and profits.
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As Artificial Intelligence accelerates more deeply into the business mainstream, David Lancefield, Partner, Strategy& outlines the benefits AI can bring to an organisation
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Technological advances and innovations in data management could save the oil and gas industry $75bn a year by 2023.
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Digital Government means using the technology we associate with the fourth industrial revolution for the benefit of citizens.
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The Internet of Things is growing rapidly - by 2020 it is estimated there will be 50bn smart devices.
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There are 2m industrial robots globally and that number is growing rapidly. The next step in their evolution is getting them to work together, rather than repeating a single task over and over.
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Graphene is a two-dimensional form of carbon one molecule thick that was discovered in 2004. It’s incredibly thin, light and strong and has numerous potential applications.
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Many patients forget to take their medicine, but as FT science commentator Anjana Ahuja explains, now there’s a pill that ‘knows’ when it’s been swallowed. It can send a time-stamped signal to the patient, and with consent, their doctor.
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The ability to control the physical world with your mind using a brain-computer interface or a mind machine has traditionally been focused on health care, and more recently the gaming industry.
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Elon Musk hopes to revolutionise public transport with Hyperloop - a system capable of speeds of more than 1200 kilometres per hour with zero emissions. Musk’s company Space X is running a student competition to advance the technology.
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Driverless cars will remain a niche proposition until the expensive sensor tech that enables them, Lidar, can be produced quickly and cheaply.
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Astronauts on a space station have started to 3D-print tools, creating a new frontier and new techniques for industry.
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Sweeping advances in manufacturing, transport and broadband capacity are creating waves of change across the globe. Soon these industries will meet, in a confluence of technologies that is set to trigger a tipping point.
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Driverless cars and the hyperloop have dominated headlines, but the next big things could be flying cars and automated subterranean tunnels.
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Lithium is becoming increasingly crucial to battery supply chains in the growing electric vehicle market and battery producers are scrambling to secure access to raw materials.
Watch videoAlmost every day in London's Square Mile, brokers clutching bulky folders stuffed with paper documents and files criss-cross the busy streets en route to one of the city's insurance markets to discuss policies for their commercial clients.
As technology-fuelled disruption has swept through the rest of the global financial sector, it has so far largely bypassed commercial insurance, leaving many of the biggest companies in London, Singapore, Bermuda and other global insurance centres conducting aspects of their business in much the same way as they have done for decades.
Yet all that could soon change: according to Strategy&, PwC’s strategy consulting house, insurance is ripe for disruption – in line with areas such as retail banking, small business lending, and savings and investments for mass affluent customers.
For commercial lines insurance, which covers everything from buildings to satellites and even kidnap and ransom for company executives and their families, many clients struggle with inefficient insurance distribution and servicing. They are also underserved: Strategy& found that only 16% of European small- and medium-sized companies (SMEs) were covered for cyber threats, while 18% did not have liability cover.
"Insurance is at a different point on the disruption curve compared with banking or other financial services," says Christine Korwin-Szymanowska, Strategy& partner. "But it is next on the list."
Strategy& estimates that in the UK, commercial lines insurance alone could account for almost a third of the total annual value of disruption taking place in financial services, which it estimates will be worth about £100bn a year by 2030.
Commercial lines insurance has long enjoyed high margins and strong barriers to entry thanks in large part to its inherently complex nature.
This has reduced the need for reform, allowing insurers to continue operating even as they put off becoming more efficient. Today, transferring a risk reportedly can eat up to 40 per cent of the premium paid at Lloyd's.
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