Future Business Trends 2019: The First Cloud Era Is Over, Now The Real Fun Begins
Fast approaching its third decade of commercial availability, the internet and its offspring are hurtling us into the next era. Sure, we’ve had fun surfing the internet, sharing on social media and working from home. But much of these initial digital years have revolved around doing the same stuff, except it was online.
Indicators from a variety of researchers and pioneering companies are revealing something entirely different in store. Whether it’s called the third platform (IDC), intelligent digital mesh (Gartner), the Fourth Industrial Revolution (World Economic Forum), or any number of monikers by other smart people in various organizations, this next digital era is shaping up as truly revolutionary.
Billions of devices demand governance
Remember when the internet was supposed to be open and free, unfettered by rules of pretty much any kind? As information sharing online has become the communication norm, legal mandates are emerging. For example, social platforms in EU countries will likely have to adhere to tougher electronic evidence regulations for sharing content with law enforcement authorities.
Calls for governance are increasing because, let’s face it, with billions of devices and data points, the internet is all grown up. Before you wax nostalgic for those unbridled, anything is possible early days, take a gander at what trend watchers are saying about the opportunities.
Business model transformation
Cloud computing has forever altered the business landscape, including companies like mine. SAP is full steam ahead bringing our customers the intelligent enterprise. Indeed, researchers can’t say enough positive things about the incredible opportunities for the cloud-based economy at-large.
IDC predicted digitally-enhanced offerings, operations and relationship-driving will power almost $7 trillion in IT-related spending between 2019 through 2022. According to a recent World Economic Forum (WEF) study, even a moderately paced roll-out of automation technologies in the coming years will power an investment surge totaling up to $8 trillion in the United States alone.
Rethinking career paths
Workers are being displaced, but new roles are coming. The WEF predicted by 2022, newly created jobs will counter-balance declines in traditional positions. Data analysts and scientists, software and applications developers, and ecommerce and social media specialists will be in high demand.
Survey respondents also expected high growth in positions that require uniquely human capabilities. These areas include customer service, sales and marketing, people and culture, training and development, and innovation managers. The study found 54 percent of employees will need significantly upskilling or reskilling. There’s a lot of work to do. As one of my mentors used to say, different doesn’t mean bad or good. It just means different.
Intelligence can help us
What’s more, as machines get smarter, so will we. Gartner predicted through 2028, advanced AI capabilities will be embedded in edge devices, meaning our cars, smartphones, computers, homes, factories, and just about everywhere. IDC predicted 35 percent of workers will use bots or other AI by 2023, forcing companies to redesign operational processes, performance metrics and recruitment strategies. Again, we still need people to do all this work.
Personally, I’m hoping forecasts like these eradicate human vs. machine fear-based conversations. Putting AI and dystopian in the same sentence is so last century (present company excluded).
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