Unpredictions: Insights into Technology
From geopolitics to cyberattacks to ESG, major trends are shaping our world. The Weber Shandwick Collective is excited to share perspectives on a variety of critical issues in our latest report, Unpredictions: Insights into policy, business, tech, media and culture around the world. The report is a compilation of expertise across branding, organizational design, sustainability, popular culture as well as perspectives from The Collective Senior Advisors.
This week on Issues Decoded we will share four key sections from the report, focusing on Geopolitical Risk, Technology, Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG), and Public Trust in Institutions. You can read the full report here.
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Technology has empowered billions of people, but societies are increasingly wary of its harmful impacts on culture, politics, media, society and human behavior and a backlash is brewing.
Insights: The largest technology companies are powerful global brands with revenues that exceed the GDP of many countries. Some governments, including the United States, European Union and China, are pursuing laws and regulations to rein them in. The challenge is to do so without wrecking the culture of innovation that drives economic growth, creates high-value jobs and provides the services and products citizens want.
In the United States, Democrats and Republicans support tech reform but are not aligned on priorities. The 118th Congress in 2023- 24 will seek to regulate e-commerce, moderate online speech and censorship, enact a data privacy law and strengthen cyber defenses.
In Europe, implementation of two major initiatives enacted in 2022 — the Digital Markets Act and the Digital Services Act — gets underway with large firms having to comply with new rules.
China is creating links between its tech firms and military and intelligence services. Multinational firms are finding it harder to comply with new Chinese laws on privacy, cybersecurity and data security.
Implications: Social media platforms are an essential tool for citizens to organize and push back against authoritarian rule, fight for social justice, or simply complain about the state of governance. But social platforms also enable extremists to preach hate, create chaos, and spread misinformation and disinformation. Limiting the excesses of social media is a tricky endeavor, however, for nations rooted in the concept of freedom of speech. There is also a growing concern about social media’s impact on children. People are not going to stop using technology, but governments, tech leaders and users must find ways to address its most damaging impacts. And there is an urgency to act before innovation in areas such as artificial intelligence (AI) and the Metaverse makes these technologies powerful enough to accelerate societal harm if misused.
Keep an Eye On: Governments will prioritize crypto regulation. After the collapse of FTX, the urgency to regulate the crypto market is accelerating. 2023 will be a decisive year to establish new rules and improve supervision, control, protect investors and rebuild trust. Regulatory efforts will be led by the United States (both the Biden administration and Congress), the European Union and the Financial Stability Board (FSB), an international authority that oversees the global financial system, and which is working on a crypto regulatory framework in 2023.
The Metaverse will continue to define itself. But so far, technologists have failed to demonstrate its practical or even commercial value. Workers will want to have meaningful and hybrid interactions, not just a clunky VR headset to awkwardly engage with colleagues in a virtual meeting. Consumers will want experiences that enhance reality, not merely substitute it.
Employees will continue to be concerned about the incorporation of AI and further automation or digitalization of their work. There is a growing fear that AI and digitalization will replace workers in many occupations. Leadership should continue to consider the impact of technology on the current and future skills of their workforce, and find ways to upskill or equip existing employees to pivot roles and remain employable if their current tasks can be automated or digitized.
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About Weber Shandwick Public Affairs
Weber Shandwick is a global in-culture communications agency built to make brave ideas connect with people. The agency is led by world-class strategic and creative thinkers and activators and has won some of the most prestigious awards in the industry. Weber Shandwick was named to Ad Age’s A-List in 2020 and Best Places to Work in 2019. Weber Shandwick was also awarded PR Agency of the Year by Campaign US in 2021, honored as PRovoke’s Global Agency of the Decade in 2020 and PRWeek’s Global Agency of the Year in 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018. The firm has earned more than 135 Lions at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, including 36 Lions in 2021 to become the most-awarded PR agency. Weber Shandwick also received Honorable Mention (and the only PR agency) on the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Global Marketing Agencies in 2021.
Weber Shandwick is part of the Interpublic Group (NYSE: IPG) and is the anchor agency within The Weber Shandwick Collective — a communications and consulting network built for the convergence of society, media, policy and technology.
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Powell Tate is the Public Affairs Unit of the Weber Shandwick Collective. For more information, visit: www.powelltate.com
