Transformative Technology and the Future of the 21st Century Business Landscape

Please welcome back Katie Brenneman who is a regular contributor to 21st Century Tech Blog. Why I like sharing Katie’s work with readers of this site is the fresh perspective she brings related to technology advances and the impact these have on the business world.

So many today fear where technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics are heading. Some even see mass unemployment should these technologies triumph replacing the human workforce. Others welcome the idea of using AI and robotics to lessen the burden of work leading to four-day work weeks. Others see the technologies as helping them to become unshackled from routine releasing their more creative selves.

But I will leave it to Katie to give you her insights into the ongoing technology revolution.

Technology changes business causing reactions ranging from amazement to fear. Businesses become more efficient, accurate, and capable of delivering products and services previous generations would not have imagined. At the same time, many fear losing jobs as they get replaced by machines.

Managing and implementing technology properly helps organizations reap the benefits while avoiding pitfalls. When done right, technological innovations create competitive advantages and increase revenue and profitability.

So what are these technologies that are revolutionizing business?

Artificial Intelligence

Ever since ChatGPT was released at the end of 2022, it has been hard to be online and not see something about the impact of this particular type of AI as well as others. 

Speaking of ChatGPT, it is a generative AI large language model (LLM). Today it and competitors are creating written content and images, taking on online customer service queries, populating help desks and more. Companies are flocking to it to try and see what it can do for them. ChatGPT and other AI software are analyzing data at scale and starting to impact almost any area of business. Where is it all going? 

As generative AI gets better at responding to humans and sounding like one, there will be pressure for writers and other creatives to add value. Organizations will be asked to stop doing things as they have been done in the past. More will focus on creating an innovation culture using AI to help with outside-the-box thinking. With the world only recently having shaken off COVID-19, new existential challenges are current and on the horizon. There is no time for businesses to be complacent. 

AI analytics will help companies to optimize operations and will become increasingly granular, able to make suggestions in real time to employees wherever they are in the organization and whatever they are doing. Workers will come to rely on AI insights just as much as they might a skilled coworker. The goal will be to improve performance across the board.

Robotics and Automation

We’ve come a long way from the Ford-style production lines of the early 1900s. Nowadays, robotic arms are used to manufacture complex pieces of machinery too large and too complex for human beings to assemble by themselves. Increasingly, these machines are autonomous, meaning no human operators are needed.

Robots are integrating AI and a particular form of it, machine learning, making them deployable in an increasing number of scenarios. And robots are getting smaller and more agile. Many of Amazon’s warehouse tasks are now being carried out by robots working side-by-side with human handlers. 

Of course, robots are not always physical. Today, we have automated chatbots beginning to provide online customer service. These software robots learn and adapt as they are exposed to more data. Soon, help desks and online chat may require very little input from human handlers.

Virtual Reality in Business

When someone talks about virtual reality (VR), many think immediately about the headsets worn by VR gamers. VR, however, isn’t just for playing games and is already being used in businesses for entirely different purposes such as digital twin workspaces created in the metaverse. VR is being incorporated into organizations to bring together remote and hybrid teams and improve collaboration. A company’s digital twin that runs in parallel to the bricks-and-mortar business can serve many purposes. It can expose gaps in operations that can be closed first in the digital and then in the real world. It can bring people from remote physical addresses to interact within the digital space.

VR can play a critical role in training particularly where there is a degree of physical risk or where tasks in the real world for training purposes would be very expensive. This is particularly true for companies supporting the military. A good example is an American technology-focused defence and security engineering company called Parsons which uses VR to train employees on hazard identification strategies without exposing them or the environment to the real thing. 

According to Verizon, organizations such as Meta, Microsoft, and Amazon have created new-hire training using VR to help educate people about the culture and requirements of their workplaces and to allow new coworkers to meet in virtual company environments. 

Avoiding the Pitfalls of New Technology

While new technologies offer many benefits, organizations need to plan their implementation. Otherwise, there can be significant setbacks that can hurt a company’s workforce, revenue, and profitability. 

For example, many industries already have legacy technologies in place that can be challenging to replace all at once. Business leaders need to have patience and work incrementally to minimize downtime, workflow disruptions, and security concerns. 

It’s also important not to lay off employees and replace them with technology that isn’t capable of doing their full jobs, which is something American media company Gannett found out the hard way when the newspaper chain tried to use an AI tool to write high school sports dispatches. While AI technology can do many things that humans can do, without the latter’s oversight mistakes will happen.