The world is on a cusp of something great. Technology has advanced from solving simple issues to complex issues in both human life and other aspects such as social, economic, and environmental issues. The significance of machine intelligence as a tool to propel human as well as economic development is an important and hot topic today. This book is about how modern machine intelligence, AI, and machine learning applications can be used by governments and firms for financial and economic inclusion, as well as for providing solutions to bridge the digital divide. It aims to cover philosophical discussions, frameworks, and applications on central topics in machine intelligence, deep learning, mesh networks, frugal engineering, frugal innovation, blockchain technology, alternate networks, and intelligent digital financial inclusion system architectures. This book also aims to discuss the initiatives, policies, strategies, and governance issues related to furnishing technologies for technology access, financial inclusion and in turn economic growth.

There is a need for financial inclusion for the rapidly dynamic Industry 4.0. Therefore, linking technology, more particularly machine intelligence with financial inclusion and technology access is quite crucial given the current technological environment. Additionally, financial inclusion helps in enhancing the level of economic and social inclusion in many societies and developing countries as well as help in reducing poverty levels. Policy makers in several countries continue to commit significant resources and technologies to increase the level of financial inclusion in their countries to reduce financial exclusion. In developing countries, financial inclusion remains below potential in part due to the digital divide, limited technology access and the challenge for financial institutions in developing products for the low-income mass market (Hook IV, 2019; Marimuthu et al., 2022).

These matters are important topics to be researched and discussed, especially with the advancement of technology such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, blockchain, business intelligence, online education, in the current post-pandemic environment which catalysed these digital transformations. Therefore, this book has been proposed to discuss a very important and emerging topics which contributes significantly to policy and the SDGs in the digital economy.

Autorentext

Abdalmuttaleb M.A. Musleh Al-Sartawi, Ph.D. is the Chairperson of the Accounting and Economics department, Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Electronic Banking (IJEBank). He received his PhD in Accounting, from UBFS. He has presented and published many papers in regional and international conferences and journals. He has chaired as well as served as a member in various editorial boards and technical committees in international refereed journals and conferences. He is the chair of various international conferences (ICGER and EAMMIS). In addition, he is the editor of 'The Big Data- Driven Digital Economy: Artificial and Computational Intelligence', in Studies in Computational Intelligence. He is a member of several international organizations and associations such as the European Accountants Association (EAA), the Bahrain Management Society, the Middle East Economic Association (MEEA), the International Islamic Marketing Association (IIMA), the Arab Academy for Banking and Financial Sciences, the Palestinian Accounting Association, and the Palestinian Farmers Association.

Manaf Al-Okaily serves as an Assistant Professor of Accounting Information Systems (AIS) at Jadara University, Irbid, Jordan. Al-Okaily earned his Doctor of Philosophy in AIS from University Malaysia Terengganu, Malaysia. His current research interest is in the domain of Digital Transformation in Accounting and Finance, Intelligent Accounting Systems, as well as FinTech Services Acceptance and Adoption. He published several scholarly articles in reputable international peer-reviewed journals such as Information Technology & People, Technology in Society, VINE Journal of Information and Knowledge Management Systems, EuroMed Journal of Business, Kybernetes and the TQM Journal. On top of that, he has reviewed several referred articles in highly ranked journals (e.g., Scopus and Clarivate Analytics). Anas Ali Al-Qudah is Acting Dean ofFaculty of Business and Head of Accounting and Finance Department in Liwa College of Technology, Abu Dhabi UAE. Anas does research in Accounting, Finance, Social entrepreneurship, Sustainable development, and Economic growth. Also, he is leading some special issues in the Fintech field with some ranked Journals as a guest editor, in addition to his role as a reviewer in many ranked Journals (e.g., Scopus and Clarivate Analytics). Dr Anas has a PhD from Finance Faculty, the University of Banking and Financial Sciences, Jordan. He obtained his master's degree from Finance Faculty, University of Banking and Financial Sciences, and his bachelor's degree in accounting from the Faculty of Business, Muta University, Jordan. He has also supervised two PhD students in Jordan and Malaysia as a Co-Supervisor 2017, 2019 respectively. Dr Anas joined some international conferences around the world, USA, Jordan, Czech Republic, Lebanon, Italy, Morocco, Algeria and Saudi Arabia. Also, he has a certificate from Keesler centre (Mississippi State-USA) as a Financial Manager 2008.