Dell Technologies has recently worked with the Institute for the Future (IFTF) and 20 experts from around the world to project in the future, predicts how emerging technologies – such as artificial intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT) – will reshape the way we live and work by 2030 and gather information that will help businesses navigate over the next decade. The experts concluded that we are on the brink of the next era of human-machine partnerships.
More than 8 in 10 (82 %) leaders expect people and cars to work as integrated teams within their organisation within five years (26 % say that their workforce and machines are already working successfully in this way). However, they are divided by what this change will mean for them, for their businesses and even for the world as a whole.
We can see this gap in how leaders forecast the future. Fifty percent of business leaders believe that automated systems will free up their time – meaning that one in two does not share this view. More than 4 out of 10 (42 %) believe that they will have more job satisfaction in the future by discharging the tasks they do not want to do – suggesting that 58 % believe something else and fail to take advantage of the possibility to use automated systems to free up their time for action to a greater command, with a focus on creativity, education and strategy.
Almost 6 out of 10 (56 %) say that schools will have to teach how to learn rather than what to learn to prepare students for jobs that do not yet exist (corroborating IFTF projections that 85 % of the jobs that will exist in 2030 have not yet been invented) – but 44 % disagree. These different views could make it difficult for business leaders to prepare with confidence for an evolving future.
In addition to businesses being affected by opposing visions of the future, they also face obstacles to the functioning of a successful digital business in 2030. Many of them are not evolving fast enough and are deep enough to overcome these obstacles. Only 27 % entered digitally in all their actions. Most (57 %) companies struggle to keep up with the pace of change and 93 % struggle with some form of barrier to become a successful digital business in 2030 and beyond. Too many companies (61 %) are supported by an insufficient vision and digital strategy, manifested inter alia by the lack of data on return on investment to demonstrate the value of digital transformation and high-level support and sponsorship.
The same proportion faces skills shortages, lack of employee ownership and a changing workforce culture. More than half do with outdated technologies that cannot function quickly enough, data overload, privacy and cybersecurity. In addition, 51 % recognise that they have put in place ineffective cybersecurity measures and 59 % believe that their workforce is not sufficiently hindered in terms of security.