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Latest News, ...
Market Bag: Shoppers cut back as drought pushes food prices higher
September 25 06:00 PM
KINGSTON, Jamaica — Jamaican consumers are adjusting their budgets as food prices remain high amid ongoing drought conditions affecting agricultural p...
{"jamaica-observer":"Jamaica Observer"}
Ny-Robii comes into his own
Entertainment, ...
Ny-Robii comes into his own
Songwriter hopes to make mark after embarking on solo career
September 25 05:22 PM
For years, Dowayne J Morrison was comfortable allowing his music to take precedence over establishing his name. Long before he began seriously carving...
{"jamaica-observer":"Jamaica Observer"}
JCF distances itself from fake wage negotiation poster circulating on social media
Latest News, ...
JCF distances itself from fake wage negotiation poster circulating on social media
September 25 05:10 PM
KINGSTON, Jamaica — The Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) and the Jamaica Police Federation say a poster being circulated on social media and other dig...
{"jamaica-observer":"Jamaica Observer"}
Would you let an AI read your bank account?
Business, ...
Would you let an AI read your bank account?
Claude is testing it, ChatGPT already does it, and here is what to decide before it reaches you
Peta-Gaye Hardy, Founder, PGH Consulting, LLC 
September 25 04:20 PM
On 14 September a website that tracks unreleased app features published screenshots of a new section inside Claude’s iPhone app. It is labelled Money,...
{"jamaica-observer":"Jamaica Observer"}
Morgan endorses new $39-m concrete road for Lucea
Latest News, ...
Morgan endorses new $39-m concrete road for Lucea
September 25 04:04 PM
KINGSTON, Jamaica — Minister with responsibility for Works, Robert Morgan, says the newly approved $39 million Seaview Drive rehabilitation is expecte...
{"jamaica-observer":"Jamaica Observer"}
Senator backs 15-year mandatory minimum, warns against weakening Firearms Act
Latest News, ...
Senator backs 15-year mandatory minimum, warns against weakening Firearms Act
September 25 03:18 PM
KINGSTON, Jamaica — Government Senator Abka Fitz-Henley says any perceived or substantive effort to diminish the strength of the Firearms (Prohibition...
{"jamaica-observer":"Jamaica Observer"}
Jay-Z rape accuser says she made ‘false accusations’
International News, ...
Jay-Z rape accuser says she made ‘false accusations’
September 25 03:01 PM
NEW YORK, United States (AFP) — A woman who alleged that Jay-Z raped her when she was 13 has said she made "false accusations" and never met the Unite...
{"jamaica-observer":"Jamaica Observer"}
Dominicans warned against being lured by Russia to fight in Ukraine
International News, ...
Dominicans warned against being lured by Russia to fight in Ukraine
September 25 02:33 PM
SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (AFP) — The Dominican Republic warned its citizens on Friday against fake offers of employment in Russia that are ac...
{"jamaica-observer":"Jamaica Observer"}
❮ ❯

Artificial Intelligence

Would you let an AI read your bank account?
Business, Latest News
Would you let an AI read your bank account?
Claude is testing it, ChatGPT already does it, and here is what to decide before it reaches you
Peta-Gaye Hardy, Founder, PGH Consulting, LLC 
September 25, 2026
On 14 September a website that tracks unreleased app features published screenshots of a new section inside Claude’s iPhone app. It is labelled Money,...
{"jamaica-observer":"Jamaica Observer"}
Is there any truth to the AI doom talk?
Business, Latest News
Is there any truth to the AI doom talk?
The people building it just asked for a slowdown, and what your business should do with that
Peta-Gaye Hardy, Founder, PGH Consulting, LLC 
September 18, 2026
Dario Amodei runs Anthropic, the company behind Claude, which this column has used in more weeks than any other tool. On 12 September he published an ...
{"jamaica-observer":"Jamaica Observer"}
UN calls for ‘urgent action’ to rein in AI in face of ‘unprecedented risks’
International News, Latest News
UN calls for ‘urgent action’ to rein in AI in face of ‘unprecedented risks’
September 14, 2026
GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — The United Nations (UN) rights chief called Monday for countries and "frontier" artificial intelligence companies to act u...
{"jamaica-observer":"Jamaica Observer"}
Two new models in one week — how to test them on your own work before you switch
Business, Latest News
Two new models in one week — how to test them on your own work before you switch
Anthropic shipped Claude Fable 5.1 on 1 September and OpenAI followed with GPT-6 Astra two days later. Both are described by their makers as the most capable models they have built. Neither claim tells you whether your month-end gets better. Here is a two-hour test that does, and a note on what each launch actually gives a business paying US$20 a month, which is less than the headlines suggest.
Peta-Gaye Hardy, Founder, PGH Consulting, LLC 
September 11, 2026
Two of the three AI tools this column has covered since June got new flagship models within two days of each other. Anthropic released Claude Fable 5....
{"jamaica-observer":"Jamaica Observer"}
Fix it before you speed it up — choosing the first thing to automate, and the data work that comes first
Business, Latest News
Fix it before you speed it up — choosing the first thing to automate, and the data work that comes first
Every week this column shows what AI can do for a finance team. This week, the order of operations. Most small businesses automate the part customers can see and leave the part the money runs through untouched, which is roughly backwards. Here is how to choose the first process, and the unglamorous data work that decides whether any of it holds.
Peta-Gaye Hardy, Founder, PGH Consulting, LLC 
September 4, 2026
Last week, Barbados’s Senior Minister Kerrie Symmonds put some numbers to something anyone who works with small businesses in this region already susp...
Telegram
{"jamaica-observer":"Jamaica Observer"}
10 ways AI has actually changed the game
Latest News, News
10 ways AI has actually changed the game
August 31, 2026
Love it, hate it or still figuring out how to use it, there’s no denying that artificial intelligence (AI) has changed the game. From helping people l...
Telegram
{"jamaica-observer":"Jamaica Observer"}
Your free AI now has advertisers — what that changes, and what your business should actually be paying for
Business, Latest News
Your free AI now has advertisers — what that changes, and what your business should actually be paying for
Every week this column shows what AI can do for a finance team. This week, what it costs. ChatGPT is now carrying advertising in a growing list of countries, on the free plan and on the cheapest paid one. Jamaica is not on that list yet, but the direction is settled, and it is a good moment to work out which plan your business is actually on
Peta-Gaye Hardy, Founder, PGH Consulting, LLC 
August 28, 2026
Earlier this year OpenAI said ChatGPT had passed 900 million weekly users, and that more than 50 million people paid for a consumer subscription. The ...
Telegram
{"jamaica-observer":"Jamaica Observer"}
Your attacker has an AI assistant too — what a security demonstration this month means for the way you approve payments
Business, Latest News
Your attacker has an AI assistant too — what a security demonstration this month means for the way you approve payments
Every week this column shows what AI can do for a finance team. This week, the other side of the table: researchers used an AI assistant sitting inside a hacked mailbox to map a company, impersonate its chief executive, find a US$247,500 wire transfer waiting for approval, and redirect it. The controls that stop this cost nothing
Peta-Gaye Hardy, Founder, PGH Consulting, LLC 
August 21, 2026
A company approves a wire transfer to an overseas supplier. The invoice is real, the supplier is real, the amount matches the contract. The only thing...
Telegram
{"jamaica-observer":"Jamaica Observer"}
The invisible watermark — AI-written text can now be identified, and what that means for your business
Business, Latest News
The invisible watermark — AI-written text can now be identified, and what that means for your business
Every week this column shows what AI can do for a finance team. This week, a change announced just days ago: Claude now embeds an invisible watermark in the text it generates, which means AI-assisted work is becoming identifiable — and the businesses with nothing to adjust are the ones that never pretended otherwise.
Peta-Gaye Hardy, Founder, PGH Consulting, LLC 
August 14, 2026
On Tuesday, 11 August, Anthropic confirmed a change this column has been expecting for a while: text generated by its newest Claude models now carries...
Telegram
{"jamaica-observer":"Jamaica Observer"}
The risks of AI — hallucinations, data privacy, and what should never go into a chatbot
Business, Latest News
The risks of AI — hallucinations, data privacy, and what should never go into a chatbot
Every week this column shows what AI can do for a finance team. This week, the other side of the ledger: how these tools fail, where your data goes when you press send, and the short list of things that should never be pasted into a chat window.
Peta-Gaye Hardy, Founder, PGH Consulting, LLC 
August 7, 2026
For nine weeks this column has argued that AI belongs in the Jamaican finance office: forecasting cash flow, cleaning a year of receipts, turning spre...
Telegram
{"jamaica-observer":"Jamaica Observer"}
AI for due diligence — how to read a 200-page document before you sign it
Business, Latest News
AI for due diligence — how to read a 200-page document before you sign it
Every week this column shows what AI can do for a finance team. This week: due diligence for the rest of us — the leases, loan letters, and business purchases that arrive as a mountain of PDF, and how AI helps you read every page before the deadline does.
Peta-Gaye Hardy, Founder, PGH Consulting, LLC 
July 31, 2026
Consider a Jamaican business that gets the chance to buy a smaller competitor. The price is fair, the fit is good, and the seller’s attorney sends ove...
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{"jamaica-observer":"Jamaica Observer"}
ChatGPT, Claude, or Copilot — which AI assistant does your small finance team actually need?
Business, Latest News
ChatGPT, Claude, or Copilot — which AI assistant does your small finance team actually need?
Every week this column shows what AI can do for a finance team. This week it answers the question readers ask most, usually with a price page already open: which one should a small Jamaican office actually pay for?
Peta-Gaye Hardy, Founder, PGH Consulting, LLC 
July 24, 2026
By now somebody has told you that your business needs AI. Perhaps it was your accountant, who swears by ChatGPT. Perhaps your IT support company, whic...
Telegram
{"jamaica-observer":"Jamaica Observer"}
Your first AI agent — teach Microsoft 365 Copilot to draft the month-end commentary your way
Business, Latest News
Your first AI agent — teach Microsoft 365 Copilot to draft the month-end commentary your way
Every month you type the same long instructions into a chat window and attach the same files. This week you write those instructions once, attach the files once, and hand the whole routine to an agent your team can share.
Peta-Gaye Hardy, Founder, PGH Consulting, LLC 
July 17, 2026
Somewhere on your computer there is a note holding your best prompt. You know the one: the paragraph you paste into an AI chat at month-end, refined o...
Telegram
{"jamaica-observer":"Jamaica Observer"}
From Excel to slides in minutes — Claude now works inside your spreadsheet and your deck
Business, Latest News
From Excel to slides in minutes — Claude now works inside your spreadsheet and your deck
The books close on Tuesday; the board deck used to take until Friday. Claude now works inside both Excel and PowerPoint — and because the two add-ins share one conversation, this month’s numbers flow from the workbook into the deck without a single copy-paste.
Peta-Gaye Hardy, Founder, PGH Consulting, LLC 
July 10, 2026
Every finance team has the ritual. The books close, the Excel pack is updated, and then someone loses a day to the deck: copy the chart, paste it into...
Telegram
{"jamaica-observer":"Jamaica Observer"}
Clearing the drawer — how Claude’s desktop app turns a year of receipts into clean books in an afternoon
Business, Latest News
Clearing the drawer — how Claude’s desktop app turns a year of receipts into clean books in an afternoon
The drawer of crumpled receipts is a Jamaican small-business rite of passage. Point Claude’s new desktop app at a folder of hundreds of receipts and bank exports, describe the mess in plain English, and it reads, sorts, and tidies the whole pile in place — so you keep the judgement and lose the lost weekend.
Peta-Gaye Hardy, Founder, PGH Consulting, LLC 
July 3, 2026
Every small-business owner knows the feeling. It is the week before the accountant needs everything, and the year’s record-keeping is a drawer of crum...
Telegram
{"jamaica-observer":"Jamaica Observer"}
Future Caribbean launches global agentic AI buildathon
Latest News
Future Caribbean launches global agentic AI buildathon
June 26, 2026
BRIDGETOWN, Barbados — Future Caribbean is launching what it believes is the world’s first global agentic AI buildathon designed to strengthen the Car...
Telegram
{"jamaica-observer":"Jamaica Observer"}
Ten prompts that will 10x your results — and the one habit behind all of them
Business, Latest News
Ten prompts that will 10x your results — and the one habit behind all of them
Most people type a question into AI the way they’d type it into Google. The professionals getting ten times the value are doing something different: they give the tool a role, the context and the exact output they want — then they refine. Here are ten prompts you can use this week, by job.
Peta-Gaye Hardy, Founder, PGH Consulting, LLC 
June 26, 2026
Two people open the same artificial intelligence (AI) assistant to tackle the same task. The first types, “help me with my budget”. Back comes a gener...
Telegram
{"jamaica-observer":"Jamaica Observer"}
T&T cocoa company exploring AI to support Caribbean farmers amid supply disruption
Latest News, Regional
T&T cocoa company exploring AI to support Caribbean farmers amid supply disruption
VANASSA MCKENZIE, Online reporter, mckenziev@jamaicaobserver.com 
June 20, 2026
Amid a supply disruption in the global cocoa industry, fueled by extreme weather and crop diseases, a Trinidad and Tobago-based company aims to levera...
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{"jamaica-observer":"Jamaica Observer"}
A dashboard in minutes — no analyst, no software, no wait
Business, Latest News
A dashboard in minutes — no analyst, no software, no wait
Interactive dashboards used to mean weeks of work and expensive software. Now a single plain-English prompt — to Claude, Copilot, or ChatGPT — turns a static sales spreadsheet into something a manager can actually click through and explore.
Peta-Gaye Hardy, Founder, PGH Consulting, LLC 
June 19, 2026
Picture your weekly Monday management meeting. The numbers exist, buried in a spreadsheet with 11 tabs that only one person knows how to navigate. So ...
Telegram
{"jamaica-observer":"Jamaica Observer"}
Cash flow forecasting in minutes, not days — with Claude, even when the JMD/USD rate won’t sit still
Business, Latest News
Cash flow forecasting in minutes, not days — with Claude, even when the JMD/USD rate won’t sit still
It used to take days. Claude, the AI now built into Excel, builds a 13-week cash flow forecast and stress-tests it against every JMD/USD scenario in minutes — even for a one-person finance team
Peta-Gaye Hardy, Founder, PGH Consulting, LLC 
June 12, 2026
Ask any Jamaican importer what keeps them up at night and the answer is rarely sales. It is the gap between the day they pay their supplier in US doll...
Telegram
{"jamaica-observer":"Jamaica Observer"}
Survey finds generational gap in attitudes to AI romance
International News, Latest News
Survey finds generational gap in attitudes to AI romance
June 1, 2026
SHANGHAI, China (AFP) -- Almost 50 per cent of young adults in six major economies think AI romantic companionship will improve human happiness throug...
Telegram
{"jamaica-observer":"Jamaica Observer"}
AI use surges globally but rich-poor divide widens, Microsoft says
International News, Latest News
AI use surges globally but rich-poor divide widens, Microsoft says
May 7, 2026
SAN FRANCISCO, United States (AFP) -- Generative artificial intelligence is being used by 17.8 per cent of the world's working-age population, but the...
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{"jamaica-observer":"Jamaica Observer"}
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Latest News, ...
Market Bag: Shoppers cut back as drought pushes food prices higher
September 25, 2026
KINGSTON, Jamaica — Jamaican consumers are adjusting their budgets as food prices remain high amid ongoing drought conditions affecting agricultural p...
{"jamaica-observer":"Jamaica Observer"}
Ny-Robii comes into his own
Entertainment, ...
Ny-Robii comes into his own
Songwriter hopes to make mark after embarking on solo career
September 25, 2026
For years, Dowayne J Morrison was comfortable allowing his music to take precedence over establishing his name. Long before he began seriously carving...
{"jamaica-observer":"Jamaica Observer"}
JCF distances itself from fake wage negotiation poster circulating on social media
Latest News, ...
JCF distances itself from fake wage negotiation poster circulating on social media
September 25, 2026
KINGSTON, Jamaica — The Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) and the Jamaica Police Federation say a poster being circulated on social media and other dig...
{"jamaica-observer":"Jamaica Observer"}
Morgan endorses new $39-m concrete road for Lucea
Latest News, ...
Morgan endorses new $39-m concrete road for Lucea
September 25, 2026
KINGSTON, Jamaica — Minister with responsibility for Works, Robert Morgan, says the newly approved $39 million Seaview Drive rehabilitation is expecte...
{"jamaica-observer":"Jamaica Observer"}
Senator backs 15-year mandatory minimum, warns against weakening Firearms Act
Latest News, ...
Senator backs 15-year mandatory minimum, warns against weakening Firearms Act
September 25, 2026
KINGSTON, Jamaica — Government Senator Abka Fitz-Henley says any perceived or substantive effort to diminish the strength of the Firearms (Prohibition...
{"jamaica-observer":"Jamaica Observer"}

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