The Fourth Industrial Revolution #FutureOfUs

As Head of digital solutions, I run a team of digital experts, whose role is to understand what technology does and how it affects our customers.

Few would disagree that technology has changed the way we live and work forever. So much so that some experts suggest that the rate technology is evolving and disrupting almost every industry demonstrates that we are living through a fourth industrial revolution.

In February I was honored to share my own thoughts on this at Accelerate 2019, a unique event for new and scaling businesses hosted by Enterprise Nation and O2 Business.

I began by considering the meteoric rise in mobile user adoption in just ten years, and the effect it has had on us all. Our mobile phones are often the first thing we see in the morning, as well as the last thing at night. The fact that we debate when is the right time to get a smartphone for our children, and how much they should be allowed to use them, tells its own story. At home I find the best way to get my children together is simply to switch off the router. They emerge from bedrooms I didn’t even know we had!

We demand connectivity everywhere, and the hotel or restaurant without wifi seems outdated, like the store that doesn’t take contactless payments. I watch couples sitting opposite each other in restaurants, each absorbed by something on their phone. Entire families sit together on the train, each with a screen of some sort in front of them. There’s no question that as a society we have adopted mobile technology and are seduced by the benefits it brings.

It’s about things

However the digital revolution is about more than just user adoption. It’s also about things, or The Internet of Things (IoT), as it has come to be known. Predictions vary, but according to Gartner we can expect to see 20 billion internet-connected devices by 2020.

As consumers we have been quick to accept them. We wear connected devices that record the exercise that we take, the calories we burn, our heart rate, blood pressure and sleeping patterns. We control the lighting and heating in our homes from our smartphone. We are installing a new generation of modern domestic security cameras that are smart enough to differentiate between a family member and someone who shouldn’t be in your home. In fact there is a smart, connected version of almost every domestic appliance, from the smart fridge that replenishes food automatically and keeps food fresher for longer, to the smart toothbrush that measures how effectively you brush your teeth. There’s even a connected version of the humble kettle, which you can set to boil for your morning mug of tea before you’ve even got out of bed.

The impact of the Internet of Things will reach far beyond the home. The smart city of the future will use connected sensors to monitor and improve the efficiency of its transport systems, energy, planning and utilities and reduce both wastage and costs. In June 2018, for example, London Mayor Sadiq Khan published his vision to make London the world’s smartest city and launched an initiative to employ technology to tackle some of the capital’s most pressing challenges, including poor air quality, urban design and digital connectivity.

It’s big business

IoT is very big business. According to McKinsey, The Internet of Things has the potential to generate between $4 trillion and $11 trillion in economic value by 2025.

With a marketplace that valuable we can expect to see plenty of innovation across business and industry from start ups and existing suppliers, as well as attempts at disruption. In fact we have already seen some extraordinary examples of technology entirely uprooting and disrupting established business sectors.

Take Uber, for example, which recently received proposals from Wall Street banks valuing the taxi-hailing company at as much as $120 billion – that’s three times the value of the Ford Motor Company. Yet it doesn’t own a single vehicle. Or Airbnb, offering nearly 5 million accommodation options across 81,000 cities in the world, and valued at $38 billion. Yet it doesn’t own so much as a duvet. Then there’s Justeat, the online takeaway service valued at £5.5 billion. It’s worth more than M&S, but it doesn’t even own a single commercial kitchen.

Technology has changed our habits as consumers as well, and we now routinely buy products as subscription-based services. We stream television and film from Netflix or Amazon Prime, and our music from Spotify, iTunes or Google Play. Meanwhile our shelves of CDs and DVDs have become little more than boot fair fodder.

Where next?

However much technology has changed the way we live and work already it’s only going to continue. In another ten years I have no doubt that we will be discussing technologies that haven’t even been conceived yet.

Here are my own views on four areas where I expect to see a lot more change:

1 The rise of the machine – I do believe we will see widespread use of robots in industry, taking on many of the low skilled, low paid and repetitive tasks that no one wants to do. But that doesn’t mean we will all be out of work, as some of the more fanciful science fiction movies would have us believe. Quite the reverse in fact. The introduction of robots, embedded with Artificial Intelligence (AI), will create many more jobs than the ones they are replacing. New skills will be required, though, which leads neatly to my second prediction.

2 Transforming education – Our education system needs to be overhauled to equip our children with the skills required to exploit new opportunities that technology presents. I don’t believe that our current system is fit for purpose, and I see children leaving school without the skills they need for today’s workplace, let alone tomorrow’s.

3 Staying put – Remote working is on the rise and it is predicted that as much as 50% of the US workforce will work remotely by 2027. For me, it is very much the future of work. I work remotely myself, and I am always looking for new ways that technology can improve my own team’s productivity. A few months ago I flinched when I worked out the travel cost and time spent getting my team together in one location for a meeting. It prompted me to challenge the way we do things. Instead we met virtually and enjoyed an uninterrupted online meeting space, where we talked, shared ideas and collaborated on projects and documents. It just worked. Technology is empowering remote working and making us more productive by reducing our need to travel. If we can do all this now just imagine the impact that the speed and low latency of 5G will have. I look forward to meeting holograms of my colleagues in virtual meeting spaces before too long.

4 The gig economy – We have a younger generation of workers who are willing to challenge the way the business they work in operates, and who choose to work their own way. I met a young recruit recently who declined the offer of a company laptop, explaining that he’d be fine with just his tablet. My initial reaction was to question how he would cope without a keyboard, mouse and a couple of the applications that I rely on myself. But I stopped myself, because when I gave it a little more thought I realised that there was no reason why a tablet wouldn’t be up to the job. I welcome being challenged in this way.

This new generation is often electing to work on individual projects for a number of clients, rather than be tied to an individual employer. It suits their lifestyles better and fuels the gig economy. I am sure that more of us will work in this way in future