Business

Bank of England to redesign banknotes

Published

6 days ago

July 1, 2025

Kevin Peachey

Cost of living correspondent

BBC Bank of England chief cashier Victoria Cleland holds banknotes and stands in front of mock-ups of new themed notes. — Victoria Cleland, the Bank’s chief cashier, wants people to have their say

Banknotes issued by the Bank of England are about to get their first major redesign in more than 50 years.

Notable historical figures, such as Sir Winston Churchill on the current fiver, have featured on these banknotes since 1970 but could be on the way out.

The public are being asked for their views on new themes, such as nature, innovation, or key events in history.

It raises the possibility of British birds, bridges, or bangers and mash featuring on the next series of £5, £10, £20 and £50 notes.

‘National identity’

The monarch has appeared on Bank of England notes since 1960. Images of historical characters, starting with William Shakespeare, were first seen on the reverse side a decade later.

At times the choices have landed the Bank in hot water. The absence of any women, apart from Queen Elizabeth II, on notes in 2013 prompted a huge backlash.

Now, the Bank is proposing that designs on the next series of notes could move on to a new theme. While notable historical figures remain an option, other possible subject matters suggested by the Bank include:

architecture and landmarks, such as famous buildings or castles
arts, culture and sport, including food, film and novels
noteworthy events in history, which could include events or movements
innovation, such as technology or discoveries
nature, celebrating plants, animals or natural landscapes such as rivers or coastal scenes

The public are being invited to give their views. They can also suggest their own themes, which may prompt plenty of jokes – Notey McNoteface will undoubtedly feature – and debate.

“Banknotes are more than just an important means of payment. They serve as a symbolic representation of our collective national identity and an opportunity to celebrate the UK,” said Victoria Cleland, the Bank’s chief cashier, whose signature appears on notes.

“I am really keen to hear what themes the public would like to see represented.”

Getty Images Selection of banknotes including £5, £10 and £20 notes.

Ms Cleland said banknotes were “little pieces of art in our pocket”, but there were some extra considerations over what can go on them, such as accessibility and security features.

She told the BBC she was “open minded” over what theme should be introduced, but said continuing with historical figures was not being ruled out.

However, she was keen to widen the choice, albeit it needed to be enduring, and not divisive, she said.

Banknotes issued in Scotland and Northern Ireland already carry images of landmarks and animals such as otters. Euro banknotes feature architectural styles.

Some notes around the world are incredibly colourful.

Bermuda’s $5 note is an international prize-winner

De La Rue Images of the Bermuda Monetary Authority $5 note featuring a marlin. — Bermuda’s $5 note is an international prize-winner

Bermuda Monetary Authority’s $5 note won last year’s International Bank Note Society’s banknote of the year award.

It is predominantly pink and carries images of a blue marlin, dolphins and tuna fish as well as a profile of King Charles III. The back of the vertically designed note combines butterflies, flora, Horseshoe Bay, and a boat passing beneath Somerset Bridge.

The Bank of England’s notes have been less dramatic, featuring abstract geometric designs, lions or Britannia in years gone by.

The crop of historical characters on the current series of circulating notes, in ascending order of note value, are Churchill, Jane Austen, JMW Turner and Alan Turing.

This public consultation relates to the Bank’s next series, which will also continue to include an image of the monarch. People can submit their view via an online form on the Bank’s website, or by post, by the end of July.

The final decision on what exactly features on a banknote lies with the Bank’s governor.

More than 4.7 billion Bank of England notes are in circulation, collectively worth around £86bn.

Cash use has fallen to 12% of transactions as payments technology evolves, but the Bank has said it is committed to providing cash for those who wish to use it.

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Business

Can AI run a successful vending business? An AI startup tested it out

Published

2 hours ago

July 7, 2025

Linda Becker

Because AI isn’t (yet) able to physically restock the machine, the AI model could email company employees who handled such tasks. Beyond that, however, the AI model, dubbed Claudius for the experiment, was tasked with many of the responsibilities of a traditional operator, including selecting and maintaining inventory, setting prices and maximizing profit.

The upshot: “If Anthropic were deciding today to expand into the in-office vending market, we would not hire Claudius,” the company wrote in its blog.

The experiment showed that while the AI model was effective at tasks such as identifying suppliers, adapting to users’ requests and “jailbreak resistance,” as Anthropic employees tried to trick Claudius into stock sensitive items, Claudius failed as a convenience service operator because it ignored profitable opportunities, instructed customers to make payments at a Venmo address it had imagined (instead of the one created), sold products at a loss, offered excessive discounts and mismanaged inventory.

Although version one of Project Vend wasn’t successful at the bottom line, Anthropic predicts that AI middle managers will come to pass. “It’s worth remembering that the AI won’t have to be perfect to be adopted; it will just have to be competitive with human performance at a lower cost in some cases,” the company wrote in its blog.

Read the full story here.

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Business

Suntory Global Spirits chooses Globant to build a Commercial Insights AI Agent and unlock Business Intelligence at Scale

Published

3 hours ago

July 7, 2025

The Editors

Suntory Global Spirits chooses Globant to build a Commercial Insights AI Agent and unlock Business Intelligence at Scale

PR Newswire

NEW YORK, July 7, 2025

Globant is partnering with Suntory Global Spirits to build a generative AI-powered Commercial Insights Agent
With the Agent, Suntory Global Spirits employees can access data insights and self-service intelligence, speeding up decision-making across product development, marketing, sales and strategy

NEW YORK, July 7, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — Globant (NYSE: GLOB), a digitally native company focused on reinventing businesses through innovative technology solutions, today announced a reinvention partnership with Suntory Global Spirits, the world leader in premium spirits, to build and deploy a generative AI-powered Commercial Insights Agent. By compressing days of work into seconds and supporting real-time decision-making for sales, marketing, and strategy, Globant’s Commercial Insights Agent is transforming operations for the beverage company.

The AI-powered agent can interpret complex business questions across dashboards, reports, and unstructured documentation for Suntory Global Spirits, eliminating the need for manual insight requests. By automating insight retrieval, the Commercial Insights Agent reduces operating costs tied to traditional business intelligence workflows and significantly reduces time-to-action. What once required multiple cycles of back-and-forth between business and analytics teams can now be executed on demand, freeing up employees to focus on higher-value strategic tasks.

“Our work with Suntory Global Spirits exemplifies how visionary companies can harness the power of agentic and generative AI to fundamentally transform the way they operate,” said Santiago Noziglia, Retail, CPG and Automotive AI Studio CEO at Globant. “The Commercial Insights Agent is more than a productivity tool; it’s a strategic enabler that redefines how teams access knowledge, make decisions, and unlock growth. Together, we’re pushing the boundaries of what’s possible when building an AI-powered enterprise.”

Additional benefits of the Commercial Insights Agent include:

Self-serve decision support at scale: Teams at Suntory Global Spirits, especially across marketing, sales and product management, can independently access data insights, ask questions, or generate reports without bottlenecks or dependencies on other teams.
Contextual recommendations powered by GenAI: The Commercial Insights Agent is trained on internal data to provide contextual GenAI recommendations that speed up decision-making.
AI Agent foundation: The Commercial Insights Agent is just the beginning for Suntory Global Spirits, which can now use the agent as a template for new use cases across brand planning, commercial forecasting and innovation pipelines.

To learn more about Globant’s AI-powered tools, visit https://www.globant.com/enterprise-ai.

About Globant

At Globant, we create the digitally-native products that people love. We bridge the gap between businesses and consumers through technology and creativity, leveraging our expertise in AI. We dare to digitally transform organizations and strive to delight their customers.

We have more than 31,100 employees and are present in 36 countries across 5 continents, working for companies like Google, Electronic Arts, and Santander, among others.
We were named a Worldwide Leader in AI Services (2023) and a Worldwide Leader in Media Consultation, Integration, and Business Operations Cloud Service Providers (2024) by IDC MarketScape report.
We are the fastest-growing IT brand and the 5th strongest IT brand globally (2024), according to Brand Finance.
We were featured as a business case study at Harvard, MIT, and Stanford.
We are active members of The Green Software Foundation (GSF) and the Cybersecurity Tech Accord.

Contact: pr@globant.com
Sign up to get first dibs on press news and updates.
For more information, visit www.globant.com.

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Business

AI Company Buys Bitcoin Miner in $9 Billion Deal to Expand Data Power

Published

3 hours ago

July 7, 2025

CPI

AI cloud provider CoreWeave announced it will acquire bitcoin mining firm Core Scientific in an all-stock transaction valued at approximately $9 billion, according to Reuters.

As AI workloads continue to surge, energy-hungry data centers have become a crucial asset. Firms like CoreWeave, which began as a crypto miner and later transitioned into AI infrastructure, are aggressively expanding their access to power and physical computing capacity. Per Reuters, the acquisition will give CoreWeave control of Core Scientific’s 1.3 gigawatts of contracted power and its development pipeline, a major boost in the race to scale AI operations.

Under the terms of the deal, Core Scientific shareholders will receive 0.1235 shares of newly issued CoreWeave stock for each Core Scientific share they hold. The offer values Core Scientific at $20.40 per share—a 66% premium over the stock’s price before deal discussions became public in late June, Reuters noted.

Despite the premium, Core Scientific’s stock dropped 22% in early trading Monday, while CoreWeave, which is backed by Nvidia, saw its shares decline 4.5%.

The acquisition is expected to help CoreWeave reduce more than $10 billion in projected future lease expenses tied to current site agreements over the next 12 years. The move not only expands CoreWeave’s energy footprint but also signals a broader trend of bitcoin miners diversifying into AI to remain viable in a rapidly shifting tech landscape.

“This acquisition accelerates our strategy to deploy AI and HPC (high-performance computing) workloads at scale,” said CoreWeave CEO Michael Intrator, in a statement released alongside the announcement.

Industry analysts see the transaction as a potential inflection point. Gautam Chhugani of Bernstein told Reuters the deal could become a blueprint for other miners looking to reposition themselves in the AI economy. Power access, he emphasized, remains the chief bottleneck for the expansion of AI-focused data centers.

Founded in 2017 as an Ethereum mining operation, CoreWeave exited the crypto mining business following Ethereum’s 2022 shift to a proof-of-stake model, which dramatically reduced miner incentives. Since then, the company has grown rapidly, with revenue surging more than eightfold last year, per its IPO filing.

Source: Reuters

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