Digital Disruption: Ups and Downs

Francesca Maria Comsa
Nov 1 · 3 min read

The world is facing new digital demands

Technology is taking centre stage in the world economy, embracing new growing digital demands. When discussing the new challenges facing the world, research from BMC Software reveals that workers are placing more responsibility on employers to enable them with the skills required to be successful as they face massive changes being brought by the digital economy.

Advances in Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, the Internet of Things, self-driving vehicles, and new payment technologies are forcing businesses, governments and individuals to examine how people work and the skills required of labour forces to meet the demands and needs of the digital industry.

Ups?

The BMC study of over 3,200 office workers in 12 countries worldwide suggests that many workers are excited by the potential for technology to enhance their work lives and create new career opportunities. However, an average of 40% fears that they won’t be able to keep up with the rate of change required by the digital business.

Employees want to take part in this digital disruption — that is why they are constantly looking to acquire new skills and asking for more training opportunities to meet the requirements of the new digital era.

They expect their roles and skill sets to change considerably by 2020.

Faced with dynamic changes in how employees work as digital society evolves, many workers are keen to embrace this disruption and seize new opportunities. They recognise the fact that the digital industry is enabling machines to take a larger role in the workforce, meaning that some of their tasks will become automated by 2020.

Downs?

Not everyone sees the change being brought by digital disruption as a positive for their role. Across Europe, most of the workers acknowledge that disruption and increased competition will require more people with digital skills in order to compete on a global scale. Concerns are growing as more than a third of workers globally fear they won’t be able to adapt or that they won’t learn digital skills fast enough to thrive in the future workplace.

This raises the question of who is responsible for providing the tools and skills required to transform the way employees work in the digital economy. Globally, office workers strongly believe that employers must create an innovative culture to retain staff and enable workers to be successful with increasing digital roles and responsibilities.

The substantial risk is that businesses that do not proactively enable their employees with the skills necessary for the digital industry or develop new, continuous methods for engaging employees to suggest and drive change, are likely to face failure.

How does Digital Disruption impact businesses?

Technology can do more than just bring your office a new application or product. In fact, Big Data, the Internet of Things and Artificial Intelligence are set to disrupt the market once they gain speed. It may seem like a distant threat, but they could be hard to beat once momentum is established. According to CIO, “Two-thirds of execs surveyed believe that 40% of Fortune 500 companies will be gone in the next decade.”

This assault towards the industry is caused by new business models that are created using sophisticated technology that some Fortune 500 companies will not be able to compete against. Disruptive businesses may look innocent in the beginning but can be — and will be — a direct threat against enterprises in the coming years.

The IT department must help CEOs and other stakeholders sharpen their gaze on new and upcomingbusinesses that could potentially cause their business to fall under attack.

As excitement grows over this year’s tech potential, anxiety looms over the new responsibilities for IT departments all over the world. From new regulations to keeping up with disruptive businesses, they seem to have their hands full.

To survive, it is time to prepare. Businesses that take the initiative to lead today will be those that others follow tomorrow.

Written by

Lead Generation and Social Media Executive at Xoomworks Ltd

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