David Prosser

London

Freelance Journalist at Freelance

Freelance journalist and consultant, and a former business editor of The Independent

Articles

Long read: Debt markets

6 days ago | icaew.com | David Prosser

The good news for business, and businesses looking to grow through M&A, is that the lending environment has turned the tide and moved back to a borrowers’ market. David Prosser talks to the debt advisers overseeing the shift. The debt markets are open for business. Despite the global political and economic instability of recent months, banks and other credit providers are determined to increase lending.
Why Banks May Not Be Your Small Business’s Best Bet For Finance

6 days ago | forbes.com | David Prosser

Looking for finance for your small business? Don’t assume your local bank is the place to find it. UK government ministers summoned bank bosses to Westminster this week for a crisis meeting on credit availability for small and medium-sized enterprises. They’re concerned that high street banks’ reluctance to lend to SMEs is holding many businesses back – and therefore dampening the UK’s economic growth prospects. They’ve got a point.
Worried About AI-Generated Code? Ask AI To Review It

1 week ago | forbes.com | David Prosser

In a fast-paced world, every organisation is under huge pressure to develop its digital products and services more quickly than its rivals. Artificial intelligence (AI) can be a huge help. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella told the LlamaCon AI conference last week that as much as 30% of its new code is now written by AI. Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg told the same event that half of its development work could soon be done by AI. Google has said AI already writes 25% of its code.
Why AI’s Biggest Impact In Health Could Be Reducing Doctors’ Paperwork

1 week ago | forbes.com | David Prosser

The excitement about the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) to revolutionise medicine and healthcare is palpable. In the UK, for example, former Prime Minister Tony Blair and former Leader of the Opposition William Hague have demanded a 20-fold increase in AI capacity to power initiatives such as cancer scans.
Meet The Start-Ups Who Say AI Will Transform Recruitment

1 week ago | forbes.com | David Prosser

Is artificial intelligence (AI) a friend or foe of better and more inclusive recruitment? It’s an increasingly important question. One recent study published by the UK Government found that 48% of recruitment agencies in the country are now using AI for tasks such as candidate sourcing and screening. That has prompted both anxiety and optimism. One worry is that AI tools will simply reproduce human prejudices at scale.
Flex first, fix later: a hybrid retirement strategy to consider

2 weeks ago | moneyweek.com | David Prosser

Savers approaching retirement usually either buy an annuity that pays a guaranteed income for life (but with no prospect of further investment growth) or draw income directly from their pension funds, which can be left invested but offer no guarantees about long-term security. Yet maybe there is a middle way. The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) thinks so. It has just published new research advocating a “flex first, fix later” approach to retirement income.
Ambitious Grant Thornton turns to private equity

2 weeks ago | accountingweb.co.uk | David Prosser

Grant Thornton is in good shape. The UK’s sixth largest accounting firm’s latest annual results, published earlier this month, reveal it grew its revenues by 11% last year to £724m. Profits reached £147m. Its 250 partners averaged a £682,000 pay-out for 2024, up by a very healthy 6% on the previous year. All of which begs a question: why has Grant Thornton felt the need to sell itself to private equity (PE) investor Cinven?
See The Bigger Picture: Inside The Business Of Managing Phone Photos

2 weeks ago | forbes.com | David Prosser

It’s a modern-day problem that hundreds of millions of people will be all too familiar with. Smartphones mean they almost always have a camera at hand, but keeping track of all those photos can be hard work and frustrating. Indeed, many people have huge and growing libraries of photos on their phone that they struggle to organise. Finding old pictures and favourite images can be tricky. A growing number of businesses spy a business opportunity.
Forbes JAPAN 公式サイト（フォーブスジャパン）

3 weeks ago | forbesjapan.com | David Prosser

AI家庭教師で、世界の教育の格差を是正すること目指すインドのスタートアップSigIQは4月7日、外部の投資家から950万ドル（約13億6000万円）を新たに調達したと発表した。同社の共同創業者であるカルティケヤ・マンガラムとカート・コイツァーらは、人間の教育者と同等の質のマンツーマン指導を、AIを用いてはるかに低コストで提供できると主張している。インドでも特に貧しい地域である北部のビハール州で育ったマンガラムは、数々の奨学金を勝ち取って、米国のスタンフォード大学とカリフォルニア大学バークレー校へと進んだ。その後、グーグルやメタ、OpenAIなどで研究職に就いた彼は、「私は、世界でもトップレベルの場所で、トップレベルの人たちから指導を受ける機会を得てきた。しかし、ほとんどの人はそんな機会を得られない」と述べている。...
Socket Acquires Coana To Build Out Its SCA Capabilities

3 weeks ago | forbes.com | David Prosser

Open-source software is changing the world, enabling developers to incorporate code already written by others into their own applications. But while this is a far more efficient and productive way to build new software, it also comes with risk – when developers pick up open-source code for their own use, they also pick up any vulnerabilities it may incorporate, potentially leaving their applications vulnerable to breaches and attacks.