Responsible AI will become business strategy.
By Dr. Catriona Wallace, AI expert and professor
2022 is a breakthrough year for digital investments. Global advances in artificial intelligence (AI) are making the technology cheaper and more widespread. Corporate spending on information technology will rise for a third straight year, increasing just 65% globally compared to 2020. At the same time, societal and cultural trends are changing how individuals think about and engage with technology.
Shifting mindsets and accelerating tech adoption are setting the stage for a decisive decade. How organisations plan and respond today will make or break future success.
This report outlines evolving attitudes and technological advances that executives must consider when investing for short-, mid- and long-term growth. It will arm executives with insights to attract talent, win customers, and lower costs by connecting people, processes, and systems. Four trends are identified and analysed, with recommendations for how organisations should respond. In summary:
These global trends represent a golden opportunity for Australia. The opportunity to deliver measurable uplift for both business and society is clear. However, while the benefits from transformational technology investments are increasing, just 16% of executives say they have a clearly defined strategy for digital. As the nation builds a new-look digital economy over the next decade, shared value—a common wealth—will only be realised if leaders make the right decisions today.
Over the next decade, AI will be widespread in life and work. This will improve everyday activities, making tasks faster, smarter, and simpler. The best experiences will share common traits, making the line between ‘customer’ and ‘employee’ experiences blur, then disappear.
AI experiences—an explainer
Today’s AI applications and capabilities emerged from countless, often interconnected advances in computing, software programming, robotics, and research. AI experiences are used to automate processes, improve decision making, and engage more effectively with customers and employees.
Today, the average Australian interacts with AI around 100 times per day, according to SurvivAI. This includes many everyday processes and interactions that make our lives easier on a daily basis. Examples include:
In the future, we will interact with AI in almost every activity and function we perform. It will be everywhere, all the time, often without us knowing. We will interact with AI hundreds of times a day, as well as when we sleep.
While it might seem ironic, an emerging body of evidence and literature suggests that AI-driven experiences will allow people to be more human. Technological progress will give employees and customers more time to focus on what they value, more freedom to choose where and how they work, and better tools for business and society to manage resources productively.
This will create shared value for individuals, who will be more engaged and fulfilled. Businesses will be more productive and profitable. They will also attract more loyal customers and employees. Society as a whole will benefit from more innovation and better management of resources.
Culturally, attitudes to change will see two distinct groups emerge. Digital experiencers will embrace technology with few limits. Organic experiencers will demand more choice in how they interact with brands and employers.
This group will reject digital-only models, preferring to pick and choose between analogue and digital touchpoints based on the situation or task at hand.
The four trends identified throughout this analysis will provide the foundation for successful operations, experience design, and delivery. They will be made possible through the rapid emergence of AI.
By understanding these trends, leaders can balance investments in tech with process change management for people, and learn how to maximise the impact of technology by integrating systems and teams more effectively.