Will new technologies coupled with and powered by artificial intelligence anticipate to functionally and substantively replace humans?
Present global economic challenges have forced many companies to review and optimize their business models. They also necessitated massive ad hoc methods to problems at hand. It appears that some temporary solutions are here to stay and be generally known as the “new normal” in the future. Just how much instability and uncertainty will the pandemic disruptions impose on businesses and global employment?
In developed markets and important modern industries (sectors), new technological solutions and methodologies for business process optimization happen to be used for a long time to reply to internal and external shocks. Nevertheless, today they face major operating disruptions and large financial losses. Owners, employees, and the state were all adversely affected by the pandemic. Despite generous fiscal and financial stimulus packages, production, employment, household income and consumer demand are falling.
What may be the right measure (size and scope) of answering these complaints? How do you properly analyze the vital needs of the population and also the economy (big and small companies alike)? How to eliminate the gap between your necessity of customers/families to have a secure job and a income source, yet still time accepting using new labor-saving technologies in order to remain competitive on the market. Overall, that increases risks, stress and uncertainty, and reduces their consumer confidence and potential to commit to longer term contracts (required for the real-estate industry) in a world where the global problem of rising unemployment isn't going away.
This paradox is at the center of today’s economic challenge. Information mill indisputably searching for a magical formula regarding how to meet their standard business goals that suddenly have become unrealistic in the conditions of accelerating competition and galloping technological change. It appears simpler to formally blame the pandemic for the problems, while feverishly seeking solutions to many open questions. Information mill now struggling to further keep costs down! They desperately attempt to lower the number of employees today (and don’t think about tomorrow)! Individuals and families question their requirement for vacation or perhaps a new car. We no more understand what may be the cause is and what is the consequence. And we neglect to resolve the old chicken and egg problem.
But it also demonstrated that nobody individually has a solution. We can only find a solution when we interact if we coordinate and communicate. More than ever before.
Thus, it is not surprising that innovative online communication platforms (e.g. Zoom) saw a massive rise in their share prices. Simultaneously, some existing older platforms were not able to utilize recent growth opportunities. Microsoft has managed to push through using the Teams platform, while Skype slowly falls behind. Simple rules of success do not exist. Deeper insights and analyses reveal that business and consumer needs (demand) for cheap and quality communication haven't changed. But our ability to provide those services globally (supply) has changed. And some companies and platforms were more productive in answering the communication needs within an efficient, user-friendly, and custom-tailored way,
The world is different overnight; our habits and key elements of everyday life have changed. Fear of uncertainty, as unmeasurable risk, has increased, causing general distrust. The worry of unknown has slowed people reactions. It is difficult to predict how this can modify the global economy and investors' behavior in the future. We all know that e-commerce is growing, significantly based on cellular devices. Today, platforms not optimized for smartphones are doomed to fail. Further growth of shopping online expected in Q4 2023 will be largely according to mobile purchases. Companies will need to adapt to new consumer trends in a short time span, primarily by relying on new costumer care technologies, distribution services, and new methods for communication which will become a growing number of customized later on.
A lot will change in corporate and commercial communications. Companies continues to optimize costs, primarily through more effective use of business space, number and skill mixture of employees, marketing investments plus much more. The big challenge is to improve communication using the market (consumers), but additionally internally. Suddenly, internal communications gain a major supporting role in modern management systems, in the lowest to the highest level of management.
If we look at the main issue, the primary challenge is how to digitally empower our society. Studies have shown a high number of penetration from the Internet and certain communication platforms (e.g. Viber). But high penetration numbers within the use of the Internet don't imply high digital literacy, or readiness to define longer-term digitalization strategies. What does that actually mean? Global corporations systematically monitor technological changes and opportunities, while there is a huge dispersion of digital literacy in the markets.
This is confirmed by the fact that nearly all IT products services (almost 1.5 billion euros in 2023) went to outsourcing. The essence from the problem lies deep however education system and goes all the way up. Commercial companies might help but cannot do the job from the education system and public institutions. Until this problem is correctly addressed, we will continue to face the failures of innovative digital communication channels as well as their objectives.
On the pragmatic side, digitalization is really a process that must have been completed by every successful organization in the past few years. Anyone who has made by are in possession of a slight advantage over the ones that is going to be forced to digitalize their business processes overnight, before the legal deadline. The space between the targets and market absorption can be handled by engaging a few of the professionals working in IT exports (programmers and engineers) to help with digitalization effort. To create this happen, one would have to secure financing and, more importantly, true social acceptance from the digitalization agenda in all (or most) of the domains. Only then will companies that purchase full digitalization be able to have acceptable return on their own investments and sustain the demand for domestic IT services and products.
