The Future of Business with Web3, AI and ML

As technology continues to rapidly evolve in unprecedented ways, businesses are needing to seek new ways to adapt so that they can thrive in the digital age. Three of these technologies shaping the future for businesses are Web3, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML).  In a recent Q&A session following our Web3 event, Mark Monfort, an expert in the field, shared his insights on how the fusion of Web3, AI, and ML will impact the future of business. 

What does the future of business look like with a fusion of Web3, AI and ML?

It will be a balanced blend of the best of emerging tech, solving the problems of existing systems. We're far from perfect, and just by looking at what web3, AI and other tools can do, we highlight even more inefficiencies in today's existing business workflows.

Blockchain tech is great for things like transparency and value transfer, so a future where businesses do their transactions with customers in fiat, have crypto onramps and offramps that convert that to trusted stablecoins, and where payments are made across the globe instantaneously is one thing. Adding transparency means both sides to trade can see what's going on, and then we could have AI via large language models like GPT4/5 recommending what to do. 

Furthermore, we'll have blockchain helping AI by transparently providing details on what these models have been trained on and AI helping to audit and ensure that blockchain smart contracts are exploit-free.

The future is bright, that's for sure.

We’ve seen several construction companies go into liquidation due to the higher interest rates and increasing cost of labour. Had the contracts been made with DeFi, would this have been avoided?

Whether it's DeFi or not, if we were using systems that made transactions more transparent, we could avoid things like rehypothecated funds and having sub-contractors do work and not know the other side had no money to pay them. Yes, we could have avoided some of these liquidations. The catch to that is that construction, like many industries, has thrived on using leverage to make those funds do more than they're meant to, so it could see a slowdown in growth if funds aren't able to be transacted in that way. However, in a new world built on trusted operators with transparent transaction details, participants can be more confident that they have a lower likelihood of not being paid. 

When will 80% of 30-year-olds be using a blockchain wallet daily? And what will they be using it for?

If we get to 80% of the population using blockchain, they'll likely do so unknowingly. Just like we don't know the technology that sits underneath everyday apps like banking or how we're sending money across international borders, or the rewards we accumulate like frequent flyers, it's also unlikely in a mainstream scenario that we'll know all about blockchain tech being used to power our new favourite apps (or even existing apps that bring in blockchain features).

If the question is around when we see the predominant use of blockchain technology, then we consider a few factors. The Australian Government developed the National Blockchain Roadmap, predicting blockchain technology will produce $175 billion of value in 2025 (see https://www.globalaustralia.gov.au/industries/digitech/blockchain). 

To see this value, we'd need more blockchain use cases in areas like supply chain, identity management/privacy, payments, membership and rewards, and more.  

Does Web3 transform supply chain finance?

Web3 technologies can transform supply chain finance by improving transparency, security, and efficiency in the financing process. Early use cases of blockchain have focused on making supply chains transparent and secure. Recent use cases are looking at how to improve how payments are made. 

Is the way crypto has been used in recent years correct?

There are two ways to look at this. The negative side would be that we could have used more opportunities to build impactful use cases and instead spent it on trading jpegs and tokens worth nothing to unsuspecting buyers. Whilst much of this is true, the flip side is that the hype built up over these past few years has drawn in many serious participants who are here to build the next wave of digital tools to improve our world. Given the rapid pace of innovation in the Web3 space, the errors of the past will be fixed quickly. 

It's easy to look back and say we should have known or done better when it comes to keeping an eye out for shady practices, but that's proven difficult in any market where the hype overcomes most honest discussions. 

Does Web3 have the ability to improve transparency more than maintain the opaque nature of current data-sharing technology?

It does. When you think about web1, this was decentralised but gave people limited ways to interact with the internet. There were tools like Lycos and Ask Jeeves and limited capabilities for sharing information. This turned into the web2 revolution and the advent of social media like Facebook and Instagram. This made our lives easier thanks to centralised improvements but it was at the cost of turning our everyday interactions into data that could be sold at no advantage to us. Web3 looks to solve that and has the tools to create more transparent ways the data can be shared. It's not just transparency; users can also choose how their data is used and have more control over how that happens.

Additionally, it turns the tables on the corporates, who were the only ones to take advantage and profit from the data. In this new world, users get to profit from the data as well, and they will be offered the ability to choose if they want to remain private or forgo those rights in exchange for some value. Optionality will be far more significant than we have right now.

What part will Layer Two blockchains play in mass adoption and business adoption? With that, how will the Layer 1 chain be seen in the future, considering gas fees are becoming unbearable?

Layer 2 technologies are going to be very important in mass adoption. As you state in this question, gas fees can be high for layer 1. We'll always need to layer one chain, and whilst they improve and lower costs, like the various changes in Ethereum, layer two solutions will be the key to significant mass adoption. Anywhere that large numbers of transactions need to occur, just like in real-life situations across multiple industries, we will need these roll-up type solutions. The talk is mainly about how blockchain can replicate what's happening in the real world. We will likely see blockchain opening up doors towards higher levels of transactions and new ways of doing business with each other.

DeFi and AI - what are the main differences, and how could we use them in a better way for us?

DeFi, or decentralised finance, is a way of doing traditional financial tasks but in a decentralised manner instead of needing centralised entities to perform these functions, such as banks. AI is a different kettle of fish that's become more popular thanks to tools like ChatGPT. AI also includes images, video, voice, and other automation to enhance and efficiently assist human work.

These complement each other if we examine how AI and blockchain technology work together. On the one hand, you have AI being used to help improve how we audit intelligent contracts and create marketing materials and educational courses that all take time which could be significantly reduced for the humans doing it, leaving them to perform even more tasks in the same period. On the other side, blockchain can be used to improve how AI works because they can be immutable recordings on a blockchain that showcase the training sets that AI has been trained on and can help provide more trust and transparency in a future where AI bots will be far more prevalent then we see today.

Future technologies like this will go hand in hand rather than exist in vacuums.