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Autonomous vehicles will change the way we travel, socialise and trade. And whilst it is obvious that the existing automotive giants, under threat from new entrants, will need to transform vehicle design, construction, marketing, fuelling and servicing, as well as their business models, to accommodate this new technology, major changes are also coming to the car insurance industry.

The latest Fintech M&A Market Report from international technology mergers and acquisitions advisors, Hampleton Partners, reveals that the fintech sector reported 141 transactions in the first half of 2018, with a total disclosed transaction value of nearly $40 billion ($39.3 bn), more than 26 percent up from the prior half year.

Do you remember how insurance used to work in the 20th century? Customers would pick an insurance company when they bought a house or car and stay with them for years, whether they were happy with the service they received or not. Price rises, laborious claims systems, poor customer service, it didn’t matter. Finding information about other insurance companies was hard. Switching was harder. Since then, times have changed. Technology has democratised the insurance industry. Now the customer holds more of the cards. But how?

After a slower year in 2017, tech M&A is bouncing back. So far in 2018, we’ve seen major deals, such as AT&T acquiring Time Warner for a reported $85.4 billion and the merger of T-Mobile and Sprint in a $26 billion deal.

Technology has been disrupting the financial and insurance industry since the Big Bang in 1986, when automation and electronic trading revolutionised the London Stock Exchange. Now it’s the turn of the insurance sector to face fundamental change as new companies, offering new ways of doing business, take on established incumbents.

Recruitment, like every other sector, is going through a period of disruption, thanks to the power of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and automation technology. So, what will happen to the millions of recruitment consultants and head-hunters around the world, who post advertisements, sort through applicants’ CVs to find the best candidates and then connect them to clients?

As the head of an organisation, you have a responsibility to your customers and your staff to make sure you are as insulated as possible against cyberattacks. So what are the steps you can take to prepare your business and ensure that your employees play their part?

In the UK, cryptocurrency, which is rapidly growing in popularity, is not heavily governed. With more than 1500 cryptocurrencies available and more being created every week, coupled with stories of people winning and losing fortunes by investing in them, some commentators believe the UK should start to devise regulations.

When we think of autonomous driverless cars, we usually give them a science-fiction sheen. We think of clean, state-of-the-art vehicles, whisking us smoothly from place to place, silently and without a hitch. The reality, unfortunately, couldn't be more different. While driverless cars should theoretically be safer than cars driven by people because they eliminate human error (and don’t use phones or change the radio whilst driving), driverless cars pose a different type of risk.

While we have experienced fluctuations in volume and value over the past 10 years, there has been an overarching upward trend in Tech M&A and there is every reason to be bullish as we move towards the next decade.