From Analogue to Digital — and then what?
A not so long time ago, in an analog world, things were, well, analog! If you wanted to get the latest news, you had to wait for specific times in the day to see the latest events happening across the world through your TV. Same goes for booking that holiday, near or far, a trip to the travel agency was required, where a travel agent in the form of a human would make that adventure possible. Watching the latest movies in the comfort of your home, was no different : it wasn’t possible unless you walked or drove to your nearest movie rental store (way before Netflix started sending those movies by snail mail — and it is hard to believe that was 22 years ago already?!). Could you imagine doing any of that today? I suspect the answer might be a resounding no!
While this was life as we knew it then, baby steps, that started in California half a century ago, were being made to bring us the internet that has, overtime, evolved into the commercial entity we know it to be now.
Today, our lives have been transformed by the explosion of digital disruptions; from watching movies, finding love, hailing a cab, to having driver-less cars — which according to research isn’t really happening fully for another decade or two at least! Internet enabled technologies have become a necessity — and a vital one for many.
Digital Innovations
Within the last 15 years, multiple businesses have been outstripped by new entrants that have disrupted the business landscape, all thanks to digital innovations. While digital doesn’t have to be disruptive, understanding how disruptive innovations work is key to helping us grasp what the future might have in store for us, particularly when these disruptions are of a digital nature.
Disruptive innovation (not to be confused with radical innovation) is a concept coined 25 years ago, by late professor Clayton Christensen, of Harvard Business School. Professor Christensen was renowned for teaching the concept of how smaller companies with few resources were able to successfully challenge well established ones, and sometimes replace them altogether — this very short video explains the concept just perfectly!
According to the late professor, it is the pursuit of profit that causes the phenomenon of disruption.
If the last few years are any indication, the many new entrants, a.k.a unicorns, that have flooded the market are proof that the pursuit of profit is alive and well — despite many of them not making any — and that may means disruptive innovations are very much part of our future, and dare I say, a prelude to the Fourth Industrial Revolution?
So, exactly what is coming next?
The answer to that is no one really knows, but as we go into the future, it is becoming less about watching movies from an app, and more about significant societal changes on a global scale. The technological prowess we’re witnessing are opening the doors to some great advances and endless possibilities in the field of business, science, healthcare or banking to name a few — fields where major changes are already happening.
And (one of) the common denominator(s) to these advances? You guessed it; Artificial Intelligence! AI is being used more and more and whilst many other technologies are worth mentioning (automation maybe?), it is clear that AI tops the list of the most disruptive, and the one that is the most used, irrespective of the industry.
“An important part of the science community hasn’t fully endorsed the technology as being safe and transparent, despite the significant progress made in the field”
Whilst in Silicon Valley, and many other places, AI is being praised, interestingly, research shows that the general public remains extremely fearful of AI and equates the disruption to “scary robots”, or robots that take jobs from humans.
And it seems that the general public isn’t alone in thinking that the technology is pervasive and has dangerous side effects; an important part of the science community hasn’t fully endorsed the technology as being safe and transparent, despite the significant progress made in the field (deep fakes are an example of a dangerous side effect amongst many).
An academic goes as far as thinking that AI could undermine our freedom (when merged with biotech) and create data colonies; professor Yuval Noah Harari doesn’t want governments and corporates to know him more than he knows himself.
You will recognize the name as being the author of best-selling titles Sapiens, or his more recent 21 lessons for the 21st Century. The historian held a talk in Davos earlier this year, where he denounced the many threatening uses of AI by governments or businesses, and the dire consequences that could result from a lack of control on the evolution of AI.
So, it seems that the explosion of tech had us leaving the analog world for a new and advanced information society, led by disruptions and the reign of data.
The question remains though, how far will the world change with AI becoming more and more powerful and present? And will our technological prowess lead to an inevitable human disaster?
If anyone has the answers to that, I’m all ears!
I’d really love to hear what you think about this article. Please feel free to submit any comments, thoughts or connect on Twitter — @NadsA20. And if you think it can spark a convo, please share away! Thank you for the support!
About this article
This article has been written by a student on the Grenoble Ecole de Management’s Advanced Masters in Digital Business Strategy. As part of a content creation assignment, students are given the task of writing articles based on their digital interests and disseminate the articles online. Articles are marked but we make minimal changes to the content. Thanks for reading! James Barisic, Programme Director, MS DBS.
