The New Year is here and with that comes a deeper look into the current digital marketplace but more importantly, where it is headed. We all know that technology is sweeping across every industry sparking a complete digital revolution. But what are the next steps?
The easiest way to see where you should take your digital strategy is by looking at the predictions for where technology is headed. Here are 4 takeaways from Gartner’s Top 10 Strategic Technology Trends for 2018.
1. By 2020, IoT technology will be in 95% of electronics for new product designs.
As IoT moves into more and more products you will see a quicker ROI in even as little as four months. This is because as they continue to develop and implement IoT, the combination of mobile management and cloud technologies will make monitoring your systems easier and more efficient. This, in turn, reduces the number of issues related to things like maintenance and servicing, prolonging the life cycle of your technologies and amping up the ROI.
2. In 2020, AI becomes a positive net job motivator, creating 2.3 million jobs.
As AI grows and machines become the workers behind more back-end tasks that previously took up extra employee time, the job market will grow and you can expect to move into roles that focus on higher level initiatives. The boom will be especially seen in both the healthcare and public sector industries. While there is a projected dip in jobs as AI first starts to grow, by 2020 the number of new positions will far surpass any it eliminated.
3. By 2021, 40% of IT staff will be versatilists holding multiple roles, most of which will be business-related rather than technology-related.
Going off of the ideas in the second prediction, this increase in higher level jobs will lead IT staff to grow into more strategic, business-related positions. As the machines take over the “heavy-lifting” aspects, they will find that focusing on more strategic goals is possible and become indispensable to companies that now rely so heavily on their digital processes and systems to meet business goals.
4. By 2020, five of the top seven digital giants will willfully “self-disrupt” to create their next leadership opportunity.
While we don’t expect you to “self-disrupt” your company along with these other digital giants, the spirit of digital change is what this prediction is all about. By dramatically changing the tried and true ways of managing your business in favor of new, seemingly risky digital initiatives, you can create a higher performing, more efficient organization. These companies see the benefits at the end of the digital disruption tunnel and what better way to reach the end that to completely disrupt your organization? While a more strategic approach will probably be an easier sell if you’re not one of the 7 digital giants, the disruptive spirit is one to take up the ladder in search of a new vision for your company.
Taking into account these new digital transformation trends as they slowly come to fruition by 2020, you can definitely take a piece of the pie and start moving your own organization into the future. When rewards like more jobs, quicker ROI and increased efficiency are at the finish line, you can really start to see why digital disruption is actually a positive word! Whether it’s adding in ECM (content services), moving completely or partially over to the cloud or even starting to implement a data capture solution, 2018 will truly be a revolutionary year for your own digital landscape.
Looking for a good place to start on your 2018 digital goals? Watch the webinar below to explore data capture and identify the best way to get your organization’s data digital.
