Some analysts claim that at the end of the 80s and the beginning of the 90s we turned a new page of history and entered the so-called digital age when our society became completely reliant on the evolution of digital tech. And even though people back then who had only Tetris and dial-up internet would call such claims exaggerated we now see they were spot on.
There is no better example of this than the business world where digital tech swept over all industries and integrated them so tightly that we can now safely say running a company without using digital assets is no longer possible.
Still, this change doesn’t have to be bad or intimidating as long as we can grasp its magnitude and use its results to our advantage. So, let’s see how exactly digital tech transforms the way we do business.
Collaboration redefined
The success of one company always heavily relied on a high level of collaboration and efficient sharing of relevant information. The development of digital technologies completely redefined how we think about these factors and use them in the business environment. Instant messaging apps, conferencing tools, cloud-based resources, and even more complex technologies like BIM are all setting up an infrastructure where a high level of collaboration regardless of the location of the team members is built right into the very core of any workflow rather than some abstract qualities the workers need to put effort to achieve.
Evolution of remote workplaces
With advanced collaboration tools making the concerns about employees’ location obsolete, it was only expected that the business world will start gradually transitioning to a looser employee structure and start adopting new flexible models like remote working and contingent workforces. Well, it turn out that we needed the outbreak of COVID-19 for this process to take a full swing but, be that as it may, we have come to the point where 4.7 million US workers work remotely at least half the time. This situation will continue developing until the location-based, regional and national boundaries are no longer relevant.
Changing labor profiles
As we said in the introduction, all active industries, regardless of their field of work now use some sort of digital assets at least in some capacity. This shift goes right down to manual labor where workers are expected to use tools like VR, IoT, and intrinsically safe devices and fit into the shared automated workflow. That means future jobs will require a considerable level of digital literacy and change the very profile of countless professions. This shouldn’t be seen as such a detriment since this new digital outlook may attract prospective talents and seal the labor gaps countless industries are currently facing.
AI taking over the reins
Artificial intelligence was always more adept at handling certain tasks than human beings. Sorting through extensive sets of data and performing complex calculations are the two things that first come to mind. However, as modern AI becomes more advanced and Machine Learning is picking up a lot of steam this list continues to develop giving machines complete reign over the activities like workflow management, CR, logistics, and even limited decision-making. This development doesn’t completely rule out human input but rather allows it to move attention from menial chores to other higher-value duties.
Higher level of safety
Aside from being able to perform countless tasks much faster than human beings, AI handless these chores with far fewer errors. This extreme level of efficiency, repeatability, and certainty, as a result, drastically speeds up production, eliminates expensive mistakes and human-caused breakdowns, and, most importantly, makes workplaces much safer places to be in. Even when we use human labor, the combined forces of IoT and AR can provide workers with much better awareness of their surroundings, warn them about the dangers, and help them complete tasks with greater efficiency.
Pushing the limits of efficiency
Speaking of efficiency, we have to point out that, up until recently the ability of one company to produce some output was limited by the abilities and the resources of their employees. Now when digital tech is taking a larger role in this process and human workers are moving to oversight duties it becomes evident that the productivity limitations we have mentioned above are no longer present. Because of that the industries will be able to achieve an unprecedented level of productivity and push the global economy to an entirely new level. Digitalization thus becomes imperative rather than an option.
We hope these couple of examples gave you a general idea about how digital technologies are shaping up the business world of tomorrow and even uncovered some strategies you can use to turn this tide to your advantage. The most important thing to take out of everything we said above is that this train is speeding up and failing to board it, at this point, is really no longer a viable option. So, the best thing you can do is to pick up the pace, keep up with the trends and use the fruits of this digital evolution to gain an advantage over the companies with less foresight.
