New technologies always have an impact on traditional theories. Finance theories are no exception to that. In this paper, we have concentrated on the traditional investment theories in finance. The study examined five investment theories, their assumptions, and their limitation from different works of literature. The study considered Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) as representative of financial technology (fintech) and tried to find out from the literature how these new technologies help to reduce the limitations of traditional theories. We have found that fintech does not have an equal impact on every conventional finance theory. Fintech outperforms all five traditional theories but on a different scale.

The economy, unemployment, and job creation of South Africa heavily depend on the growth of the agricultural sector. With a growing population of 60 million, there are approximately 4 million small-scale farmers (SSF) number, and about 36,000 commercial farmers which serve South Africa. The agricultural sector in South Africa faces challenges such as climate change, lack of access to infrastructure and training, high labour costs, limited access to modern technology, and resource constraints. Precision agriculture (PA) using AI can address many of these issues for small-scale farmers by improving access to technology, reducing production costs, enhancing skills and training, improving data management, and providing better irrigation infrastructure and transport access. However, there is a dearth of research on the application of precision agriculture using artificial intelligence (AI) by small scale farmers (SSF) in South Africa and Africa at large. The preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses (PRISMA) and Bibliometric analysis guidelines were used to investigate the adoption of precision agriculture and its socio-economic implications for small-scale farmers in South Africa or the systematic literature review (SLR) compared various challenges and the use of PA and AI for small-scale farmers. The incorporation of AI-driven PA offers a significant increase in productivity and efficiency. Through a detailed systematic review of existing literature from inception to date, this study examines 182 articles synthesized from two major databases (Scopus and Web of Science). The systematic review was conducted using the machine learning tool R Studio. The study analyzed the literature review articled identified, challenges, and potential societal impact of AI-driven precision agriculture.

Photovoltaic systems have shown significant attention in energy systems due to the recent machine learning approach to addressing photovoltaic technical failures and energy crises. A precise power production analysis is utilized for failure identification and detection. Therefore, detecting faults in photovoltaic systems produces a considerable challenge, as it needs to determine the fault type and location rapidly and economically while ensuring continuous system operation. Thus, applying an effective fault detection system becomes necessary to moderate damages caused by faulty photovoltaic devices and protect the system against possible losses. The contribution of this study is in two folds: firstly, the paper presents several categories of photovoltaic systems faults in literature, including line-to-line, degradation, partial shading effect, open/close circuits and bypass diode faults and explores fault discovery approaches with specific importance on detecting intricate faults earlier unexplored to address this issue; secondly, VOSviewer software is presented to assess and review the utilization of machine learning within the solar photovoltaic system sector. To achieve the aims, 2258 articles retrieved from Scopus, Google Scholar, and ScienceDirect were examined across different machine learning and energy-related keywords from 1990 to the most recent research papers on 14 January 2025. The results emphasise the efficiency of the established methods in attaining fault detection with a high accuracy of over 98%. It is also observed that considering their effortlessness and performance accuracy, artificial neural networks are the most promising technique in finding a central photovoltaic system fault detection. In this regard, an extensive application of machine learning to solar photovoltaic systems could thus clinch a quicker route through sustainable energy production.

Accurate prediction of US Treasury bond yields is crucial for investment strategies and economic policymaking. This paper explores the application of advanced machine learning techniques, specifically Recurrent Neural Networks (RNN) and Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) models, in forecasting these yields. By integrating key economic indicators and policy changes, our approach seeks to enhance the precision of yield predictions. Our study demonstrates the superiority of LSTM models over traditional RNNs in capturing the temporal dependencies and complexities inherent in financial data. The inclusion of macroeconomic and policy variables significantly improves the models’ predictive accuracy. This research underscores a pioneering movement for the legacy banking industry to adopt artificial intelligence (AI) in financial market prediction. In addition to considering the conventional economic indicator that drives the fluctuation of the bond market, this paper also optimizes the LSTM to handle situations when rate hike expectations have already been priced-in by market sentiment.

This study evaluated the performance of several machine learning classifiers—Decision Tree, Random Forest, Logistic Regression, Gradient Boosting, SVM, KNN, and Naive Bayes—for adaptability classification in online and onsite learning environments. Decision Tree and Random Forest models achieved the highest accuracy of 0.833, with balanced precision, recall, and F1-scores, indicating strong, overall performance. In contrast, Naive Bayes, while having the lowest accuracy (0.625), exhibited high recall, making it potentially useful for identifying adaptable students despite lower precision. SHAP (SHapley Additive exPlanations) analysis further identified the most influential features on adaptability classification. IT Resources at the University emerged as the primary factor affecting adaptability, followed by Digital Tools Exposure and Class Scheduling Flexibility. Additionally, Psychological Readiness for Change and Technical Support Availability were impactful, underscoring their importance in engaging students in online learning. These findings illustrate the significance of IT infrastructure and flexible scheduling in fostering adaptability, with implications for enhancing online learning experiences.

The financial services industry is experiencing a swift adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning for a variety of applications. These technologies can be employed by both public and private sector entities to ensure adherence to regulatory requirements, monitor activities, evaluate data accuracy, and identify instances of fraudulent behavior. The utilization of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) has the potential to provide novel and unforeseen manifestations of interconnectivity within financial markets and institutions. This can be represented by the adoption of previously disparate data sources by diverse institutions. The researchers employed convenience sampling as the sampling method. The form was filled out over the period spanning from July 2023 to February 2024, and it was designed to be both anonymous and accessible through online and offline platforms. To assess the reliability and validity of the measurement scales and evaluate the structural model, we employed Partial Least Squares (PLS) for model validation. Specifically, we have used the software package Smart-PLS 3 with a bootstrapping of 5000 samples to estimate the significance of the parameters. The results indicate a positive and direct connection between artificial intelligence (AI) and either financial services or financial institutions. On the contrary, machine learning (ML) exhibits a strong and positive association among financial services and financial institutions. Similarly, there exists a positive and direct connection between AI and investors, as well as between ML and investors.