Latest news with #EuanAndrews
Scotsman
5 days ago
- Business
- Scotsman
AI is feeling hungry – and software is on the menu
Nick Freer offers food for thought as the artificial intellligence revolution continues to gather pace Sign up to our daily newsletter – Regular news stories and round-ups from around Scotland direct to your inbox Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... When you look at the success of the Scottish tech startup scene to date, in the main it is startups building software to deliver innovation across B2B and B2C that have underpinned this exponential growth. So, think online travel giant Skyscanner or sports betting star FanDuel – both multibillion-valued companies who began their lives as startups in Edinburgh, from where they both took their first fledgling flights before hitting global scale and becoming the nation's first unicorns. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad This week, digital consultancy CreateFuture (formerly xDesign) announced a technology partnership with Skyscanner, following on from a previous engagement with FanDuel, which will see CEO and founder Euan Andrews and his 500-strong team based across the UK and Europe support Skyscanner in areas including audience experience, data and AI tooling, and app experience. As CEO Andrews noted in CreateFuture's press announcement this week: 'We think this says something about the evolution of the Scottish technology ecosystem as a whole.' He is right, it does, because while the big tech brands generally garner the news headlines, we shouldn't forget the specialist firms that provide supporting roles, and some of our native digital consultancies and software development firms should be filed under this category. Global tech players like Skyscanner and FanDuel know how to spread their butter when it comes to employing and deploying tech talent within their businesses, and equally they know the value of using external talent to support the development of their technology. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Rewind to August 2019 and another Scottish software studio, Cultivate, was in the news after being acquired by Deliveroo, marking the food delivery app's first acquisition in the UK. Cultivate, headquartered at CodeBase in the shadow of Edinburgh Castle, had a relatively small team of engineers and developers, but small can be beautiful and these beautiful people were helping Deliveroo around its payment system which handled millions of transactions every day. Renowned venture capitalist Marc Andreessen's 2011 declaration that 'software is eating the world' proved prophetic, but as we know technology waits for no man or woman and six years later Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang moved Andreessen's metaphor on, famously remarking: 'Software is eating the world… but AI is eating software.' Arguably, the most important software conference in the world, 'SaaStr', takes place in San Francisco in May every year with software-as-a-service (SaaS) founders, executives, and investors gathering in the Bay Area to network, hear from SaaS leaders, secure investment, and sell. And it was with little surprise that the organisers added 'AI' to the name of the conference this year. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Last month, McKinsey & Company released its 'Technology Trends Outlook' report for 2025, in which the global management consultancy stated: 'Even as excitement builds, realising AI's full potential across sectors will require continued innovations to manage computing intensity, reduce deployment costs, and drive infrastructure investment. This will also demand thoughtful approaches to safety, governance, and workplace adaptation, creating a wide range of opportunities for industry leaders, policymakers, and entrepreneurs alike.' Food for thought.
Business Wire
6 days ago
- Business
- Business Wire
CreateFuture Secures Strategic Tech Partnership With Skyscanner
EDINBURGH, Scotland--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- CreateFuture has secured a technology partnership with Skyscanner which will see the digital consultancy work closely with the global travel marketplace's tech teams across its Edinburgh, Glasgow, London, and Barcelona offices in areas including audience experience, data and AI tooling, and app experience. Euan Andrews, CEO and Founder of CreateFuture, said: 'Skyscanner began life here in Scotland, and is now the leading global travel app that scans over 80 billion prices daily. We are excited to be working with their world-class engineering team to accelerate, grow, and contribute to their future success.' Andrew Phillips, Chief Technology Officer at Skyscanner, said: 'CreateFuture's proven capabilities, culture match, and overall collaborative approach made them the ideal choice for us, and we fully expect their team to be instrumental in helping us to achieve our engineering goals.' CreateFuture was appointed after a multi-stage process from a national and international pool of consultancies, and was recognised for its engineering expertise, cultural alignments, and track record around delivery. Skyscanner joins a client list at CreateFuture which includes PayPal, adidas, NatWest, Baillie Gifford, MoneySavingExpert, Penguin Random House, Simple Online Healthcare, Multiverse, and FanDuel. Euan Andrews added: 'As a Scotland-headquartered company, we think it's notable that we're now working with the country's two tech unicorns - Skycanner and FanDuel - and that this says something about the continuing evolution of the Scottish technology ecosystem as a whole. And for our business, it not only strengthens our position at the forefront of digital transformation in Scotland, but helps to lay the ground for further expansion across the UK and internationally.' Founded in 2010 by CEO Euan Andrews, CreateFuture now has around 500 people working across 3 UK offices plus a European base - delivering end-to-end digital transformation and covering CX strategy, product innovation, AI enablement, cloud and infrastructure, and data and analytics. The company rebranded from xDesign following the acquisition of CreateFuture in 2023, and is backed by investment firm Soho Square Capital.
