BBVA Compass’ longstanding relationship with Christie’s Auction House will hit another year when the first event of 2018 will be held in Houston on January 31.

We inferred as much in the title to the first article of this series: to key to realizing all the opportunities of this new technological era, lies in these three factors: raw material—data—and the other two are human factors—intelligence and innovation.

Probably the first thing the philosopher would do would be to create a strategy to explore it. Just like when he designed a user's manual for the human mind with Logic or when he developed a method of thinking critically to examine metaphysics. Aristotles “tried to show that all things in nature belong to certain groups and subgroups,” writes Jonstein Gaarder in Sophie’s World. But first, he counted up the tools he had for this task.

Concepts such as big data, machine learning, artificial intelligence and data science are increasingly at the center of the debate about the digital revolution. But why is everyone talking about them? Do we really understand these concepts, or the implications they have on our evolution as a society?

At BBVA, new digital solutions for customers are constantly being developed. The bank´s affiliates in Mexico, Peru and Chile are launching new tools for personal finance, implementing the use of the digital signature for contracting loans, and adding new functions to their cell phone apps.

BBVA is committed to working with the fintech community in a way that delivers real benefits for the start-ups, the bank and of course customers and clients.

Wearables manufacturers are changing their focus from fitness and health, to improving user productivity and connectivity. That´s the great challenge facing a business whose size is expected to double between 2017 and 2021.

Service design is a strategic element in BBVA’s approach to understanding and satisfying customers’ needs at a time of great challenges for the banking industry. This year, a member of BBVA´s design team will give classes at two Spanish academic institutions, to share his knowledge with future professionals.

The BBVA Foundation´s Frontiers of Knowledge Award was won by four mathematicians - Shafi Goldwasser, Silvio Micali, Ronald Rivest and Adi Shamir - for their outstanding contributions to cryptology, a science that has proven crucial to ensuring security in the online world.

E-everything: Smart cars, watches and speakers have all begun to earn a place in the everyday lives of millions of people. Could any of them become as important as smartphones?