People and Technology - getting rewired?

INDIA: Technology that works for people, not because of them! In other words, putting an end to technology tools with power that is only unleashed when customers and employees adapt to them. Seems like technology’s great new strength may lie in its growing humanity.

As per what Accenture portends, tools that interact with people, learn from those exchanges, and adapt for future interactions make the experience of using them all the more human. That’s the first step to empowering people – providing

technology that works with them.

The theme for Accenture’s Technology Vision 2017 report ‘Technology for People’, also underscores that people are shaping technology to adapt to us, and in turn, we are designing the future using technology to fit our needs.

‘Ecosystems as Macrocosms’ also emerged as one of the major five trends in this study. It's about how companies need a robust ecosystem approach, along with the platform strategy, in order to lead in this new era of intelligence. According to the report more than one-quarter (27 per cent) of executives surveyed said that digital ecosystems are transforming the way their organisations deliver value. This results in designing future value chains that will transform businesses, products, and even the market itself.

Also, platform companies that provide a single point of access to multiple services have completely broken the rules for how companies operate and compete. Companies today need a rich and robust ecosystem approach to lead in this new era of intelligence.

The report identifies, among other trends, Artificial intelligence (AI) turning into a company’s digital spokesperson. Moving beyond a back-end tool for the enterprise, AI is taking on more sophisticated roles within technology interfaces. And, it will act as the face of a company’s digital brand and a key.

The report stresses further that to put new adaptive technologies to use, businesses must adopt people’s goals as their own. A partnership, by contrast, is much more powerful – and enduring.

To become a true partner, companies will need to shift their thinking, and replace the immediate sales goals of the past with the goals that customers and employees have for themselves.

When it’s established that a company truly wants to help people reach their goals, they’ll come to the company first for as many of the goals that can be addressed. And when people succeed, so does the company.

The report leaves us thinking: What if technology adapted to people? The new frontier of digital experiences is technology designed specifically for individual human behavior. Business leaders recognise that as technology shrinks the gap between effective human and machine cooperation, accounting for unique human behavior expands not only the quality of experience, but also the effectiveness of technology solutions. This shift is transforming traditional personalised relationships into something much more valuable: partnerships.

The report also underlines the need for new standards as new industries take concrete form. Businesses are not just creating new products and services; they’re shaping new digital industries. From technology standards, to ethical norms, to government mandates, in an ecosystem-driven digital economy, one thing is clear: a wide scope of rules still needs

to be defined.

To fulfill their digital ambitions, companies must take on a leadership role to help shape the new rules of the game. Those who take the lead will find a place at or near the center of their new ecosystem, while those who don’t risk being left behind, Accenture reckons.