The pace of technological evolution is picking up speed. In just the past 20 years, we’ve gone from being completely reliant on fixed phone lines, to carrying a continuous channel of communication in our pockets with smart phones. And scenes that were previously reserved for science fiction are now part of day-to-day life – like watches you can make calls from, or voice recognition technology that understands you and even answers your questions.
Tech has naturally permeated the business world, too. In the past, tech was a layer that was added on top of business operations. Today, it’s a native part of the way we work, communicate and collaborate. Businesses that are truly digital have a unique competitive advantage. They aren’t constricted by technology that’s bolted on to legacy systems, and so they are positioned to scale and seize opportunities as they arise.
COVID pandemic pushes progress
The saying that necessity breeds innovation became especially true during the beginning of the COVID pandemic, as businesses rushed to find ways to keep their staff employed and productive while working from home. This forced disruption has resulted in a huge leap in progress when it comes to the ways that businesses operate.
From restaurants moving online to allow customers to order takeaways, to schools finding new ways to deliver their curriculum remotely, we’ve seen technology leveraged in ever-more innovative ways by businesses across all industries.
This period of pressure has meant that changes that may not have happened for another five or even ten years, have been condensed to take place in the space of just one or two.
How enterprise businesses are leveraging tech today
At Rubicon 8, we work with enterprises to identify and implement technology that allows them to adapt, grow and stay at the forefront of their market. Here are some of the latest ways that we’ve seen enterprises leverage technology to achieve this.
Automating replicable and repetitive tasks
Business automation is already here, taking care of repetitive tasks like reporting, some types of emails, processes and inventory management. Automation not only creates space for more strategic and innovative work, but also drives cost and productivity gains – and the larger the workforce, the larger the gains.
Hybrid work powered by cloud collaboration and fast connectivity
Cloud collaboration and unified communications platforms now allow teams to work together in real time, regardless of where they are connecting from. And with the rise of this technology, more and more connectivity options have become available, providing the ultra-fast speeds that are required to enable this collaboration.
Big data and AI informing decision-making
The ability to process huge volumes of data to create meaningful insights continues to impact the way enterprise businesses make better-informed strategic decisions.
What does the future workplace look like?
Looking to the future of work, many industry commentators predict that the focus will be on people, with a greater emphasis on the partnership between people and technology. Rather than looking to replace human work with machines, organisations that find ways to uncover their employees’ unique and human skills, and then complement these with technology, are the ones that will prosper. Let’s look at the emerging future of work trends and technologies that are being designed with this goal in mind.
Collaborative AI
Collaborative Artificial Intelligence (AI) is technology that brings together both the creativity and strategy of humans, and the processing power of machines. While AI alone can manage repetitive tasks en masse, the combination of people and machines working together in partnership with Collaborative AI will become even more powerful.
Extended reality (XR)
Extended reality is emerging terminology for the technology that includes virtual reality, augmented reality and mixed reality. In the workplace of the future, immersive learning and training through simulations will become possible. And tasks can even be performed by a person in one location, that triggers an event in another – like remote surgery.
Multimodal interfaces
Technology that recognises not just inputs like a keyboard or mouse, but also things like speech, gestures and gazes will likely be adopted and embedded in enterprise – helping process more complex inputs faster. This will become particularly impactful when paired with extended reality and applied in learning situations.
Thriving in a world where change is the only constant
Organisations that thrive in the workplace of the future will have leaders who are able to cultivate and maintain a culture of innovation. In a world where change is the only constant, innovating and finding new and better ways of doing business is what will become the difference between surviving and thriving.
By leveraging the right technology to make work more streamlined and efficient, more time can be freed up for innovating, creating and collaborating.
Is your organisation ready to launch into the future? Rubicon 8’s solution architects are here to make it happen with tailored enterprise tech. Book a consultation today.
