Breakthrough technologies

Amid increased global competition and continued market turbulence, acting now when it comes to innovation, investment and sustainability will not only be crucial to meeting the future needs of customers and stakeholders, but could mean the difference between market dominance and imminent irrelevance.

As we begin to grow increasingly familiar with the concept of the metaverse, financial institutions are faced with multiple opportunities to maximize its potential – both for the end customer and for employees. While there will still be hurdles when incorporating the metaverse into commercial strategy, the value and competitive advantage of early adoption far outweigh the challenges.

AWS Digital Twins can transform the industrial sector. The data collected from a digital twin delivers actionable insights into the complete lifecycle of processes, providing the tools to optimize workflows, optimize the supply chain, manage product quality, and spot any errors before they happen.

When it comes to consumer goods, standards are exactingly high across the industry, and processes are often complex. Digital transformation across multiple vectors – from logistics to packaging to quality control – can both revolutionize efficiency and ensure that the highest standards are met.

As digital native challenger banks rapidly encroach, it has become imperative for retail banks to move to the cloud to compete. There are numerous benefits associated with cloud migration, but they should also be aware of the pitfalls.

Roughly 20 years after its inception in the business world, cloud adoption is now all but universal, with almost every sizable company utilizing cloud services to some degree. However many of these companies still aren’t realizing its full potential, often due to the complexities of breaking away from their legacy systems. With the future of business predicted to take place on the cloud, such organizations face an increasing urgency to remain competitive by taking advantage of the full suite of cloud capabilities.

The metaverse is set to revolutionize the way businesses and people interact with each other. And though we might be still a few years away from what is close to a ‘finished product’, it’s not too soon for companies to start preparing for what’s ahead.

Cloud technologies are widely lauded for their sustainable cost advantages and built-in business flexibility, meaning that a shift to the cloud is often a key IT priority in increasing an organization’s competitiveness. However, an understanding of the growing ecosystem of technologies is a prerequisite for avoiding pitfalls – and cloud adoption must be carefully integrated into a holistic business transformation strategy to succeed.

In today’s unpredictable climate, embracing new technology and rethinking how we share supply chain data will be key to adapting (and thriving) in the face of challenges. Amidst unprecedented global uncertainty, bold action is the strongest move.

Organizations seem to be putting the recent past behind them and growth is back on the agenda. Despite continuing uncertainty, supply chains are now willing and able to make a greater positive contribution by being more responsive and agile.

As we approach the era of the Metaverse and XR, leaders can benefit from deepening their understanding of the opportunities, challenges and entirely new dimensions of business that will become an integral part of our professional lives in the next decade. While mass adoption is not yet widespread, the journey has already begun – and for early movers and enablers, the rewards could be significant.

When we think of the metaverse, we should not think of a hypothetical world but of a certain future. Technologies including augmented reality, IoT, cybersecurity and blockchain come together to form this new virtual space, and the opportunities for businesses and consumers alike are plentiful. But rather than trying to replicate the current world, we must be brave and creative in imagining a new one.

The advent of 5G networks has caused a great debate within the global telecommunications sector. The new generation of wireless networks is viewed as a savior by some, set to transform the industry back into a growth engine; to others, it looks to be another huge capital expenditure with an uncertain use case. For 5G to reach its full potential of becoming a significant revenue source, carriers need to adopt an ‘outside in’ approach to innovation.

Bias in technology is real, and as we design and build increasingly powerful systems, our obligations to those using the technology increase in step. Two experts share what they’ve learned for building diverse and efficient teams and ethical AI frameworks.

Those designing the digital products and services we use every day have a great responsibility. Technology has the power to change the world, by connecting and empowering us all. But designers can’t do this alone – business leaders and decision-makers must act now, embedding ethical practices today, to make sure we’re on the right path.

It’s the next big thing in understanding and engaging customers: building a virtual replica of the business ecosystem, and leveraging ontologies as enabling technology. This exciting branch of AI can help businesses to generate very targeted insights into their customers’ expectations and needs.

From picking up on our tendencies toward exclusion to offensively grouping characteristics, AI is learning (and scaling) our worst habits. Luckily, awareness and a desire to take action is growing across many organisations. It’s not too late to resolve this problem. So, what do businesses need to know and do to prevent it?

Continuous innovation used to be enough to drive growth. However, today’s organisations also must innovate at speed and scale. Indeed, a frequent question we hear from CEOs around the world is: “How can my organisation adapt and move faster?”

The way enterprises are buying IT is changing, and so are the characteristics of the buyers. Several big trends are driving this transformation, from the need for agility to different expectations of time to value and the liberating possibilities of the cloud. Now, IT departments can stitch everything together to meet their exact needs much faster than ever before.

Manufacturers are dealing with fundamental changes in every part of their operations, with a growing demand for higher product customisation, making traditional manufacturing processes no longer fit for purpose. It’s time for manufacturing to undergo a new stage in its transformation: Hyper Automation.

The revolution is here. Processes, systems and organisations are evolving, changing to meet the new shape of business. The Fourth Industrial Revolution weaves digital into the very fabric of the organisation, wielding automation and interconnection. Yet challenges remain.

Most companies use workload automation software to automate business processes. However, reality also shows that a patchwork of different solutions quickly reaches its limits if end-to-end control across applications, data and infrastructures cannot be guaranteed.

Imagine if process automation was a matter of simply typing what you want. Well, this just became a reality. At a recent hackathon, an NTT DATA team demonstrated an innovative approach that integrates RPA bots and chatbots. The result was a tool that freed users from time-consuming, repetitive tasks, allowing them to focus on adding value while using natural conversation capabilities.

Actionable intelligence from rich data gives you immediate competitive advantage. Once you trust these insights enough to devolve some decision-making to automated systems, then you are on the way to being a data-driven enterprise.

Intelligent automation is a business imperative: not just making organisations more efficient but enriching customer and employee experience – not to mention helping to identify new business strategies. To successfully transform your organisational culture to one that embraces automation, there are five key steps (and a few basic tenets) to ensure you get the most from IA.

Remember when people thought the internet wouldn’t catch on? Forward-looking people and organisations quickly adopted networked technologies, understanding the possibilities they offered. The same is true of blockchain – and just like the internet, blockchain is all about finding the patterns and acting early.

What safeguards do organisations have against the constant tide of disruption? Those that are smart are taking full advantage of technologies like cloud, AI and big data analytics – and doing so with one focus in mind: giving their people what they need to leverage the full power of their collective intelligence.

What does it take to build an intelligent enterprise? The combination of human intellect and the computer’s proficiency in performing rules-based tasks creates a hybrid ability far better than man or machine can achieve alone. To become a digitally optimised organisation, and sustain it, companies need a clear understanding of what they hope to gain, plus a cohesive plan to bring technology and people together for the maximum benefit.

No industry has been left untouched by the pandemic. Since its onset, companies have been in a constant state of heightened flux: adjusting, recovering or strategising for the future, and all eyes have been on the technology that has helped carry them through. As the economy starts to recover, organisations must pivot to meet any challenge head-on.

Technology has played a momentous role in responding to the Covid-19 crisis: supporting healthcare, enabling businesses and governments to function remotely and keeping people connected in lockdown. This speaks directly to the social impact goals of many companies around the world, whether that is to safeguard the health and safety of employees, bring communities together or improve access to vital services like health and education.

In an industry plagued by scandal and a poor reputation for commitment to sustainability, those adopting developing technology and proactively improving supply chain capabilities, will be able to provide traceability and transparency particularly in the areas of social impact, safety and authenticity which is ultimately required by today’s customers.

Smarter and more sustainable workplaces are essential for all businesses as we tentatively emerge from the restrictions of the pandemic. Technology is pivotal in not only providing a seamless user experience but also in building a greener IT strategy.

Technological development is an important vehicle to achieve sustainability, but companies must open up to innovation. Developments in the Blue Economy – protecting our marine environment and sustainably using ocean resources for improved social and economic life – offer inspiring examples of how technology is helping to protect and enhance the most vital element of our planet’s natural resources.

Machine learning and AI are often associated with enhancing the consumer experience, but they can also assist businesses significantly in their tax-related work. Simplifying the taxation processes and compliance procedures contributes to business sustainability, and through it, the wider community and society.

Technology will star in every organisation’s journey to more sustainable operations. Accelerated by the Covid-19 disruption, the most forward-thinking leaders in healthcare and education now embrace new digital tools to improve engagement, measure impact and optimise performance.

One of the UN’s Global Goals is that of Sustainable Cities and Communities, to make these urban areas safe, resilient and inclusive as well as reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions. On the Danish island of Rømø, NTT DATA Business Solutions is employing a versatile data platform to analyse and forecast flows of people, holidaymakers’ buying habits, water and energy consumption, traffic flows, weather information, and data from the web – making Rømø a truly ‘smart island’.

Complex computations are needed to help us solve the planet’s climate crisis. Business innovators can stay one step ahead of changes with an adolescent mathematical field, Quantum Computing – the tool that will increase the velocity of exploration toward a more sustainable future.

Learning is a critical part of an organisation’s ability to transform. The steep learning curve on cloud native migrations offers a useful lens through which to understand how we can improve both training and ways of working, in order to create an agile and future-fit organisation.

New norms are emerging. Social movements, such as Black Lives Matter or Fridays for Future, urge companies to position themselves politically; and new legal frameworks and standards such as GDPR push companies to rethink the ways they develop products and services. As the responsibilities of companies grow and change, making sure that ethics, diversity and inclusion, and sustainability are built into every process is essential for both consumer and company.