Technological and industrial convergence: a historic opportunity

And it’s that combination of technology and human ingenuity, as we say, and as Danielle just mentioned in her medical cancer treatment example, that’s really where the greatest value and the greatest impact will come. We believe the companies that lead in the next decade will need to harness five forces, and all of these forces will require technology and ingenuity to unite. They will require organizations to work on all elements of their organization, work with new partners, expand into new areas and ecosystems, learn and collaborate with industry innovators, as well as across industry and academia and beyond to truly push the boundaries of science and impact.

The five forces we’re seeing right now, the trends that are having the most impact on our customers really start with what we believe underlies everything right now, and it’s something we call the total reinvention of the company. And we really started to see that come to the fore as we went through covid. And what we’re seeing now is that as companies seek to enter these new waves of change and opportunity, they need to execute strategies to change and transform all parts of their business through technology, to data and AI, like Daniela that I just talked about, to enable new avenues of growth, new ways to engage customers, new business models, new opportunities, but they do it in a way very different. They’re doing it in a way where they’re looking at every part of their organization and the technology and the digital core that underpins it at the same time, so we think we’re in the early stages of this profound change, but we think this will be the biggest change since the industrial revolution.

And embracing total business reinvention often requires something we call compressed transformation, which are bold transformation programs that, as I said, span the entire organization with different groups working together d in a way that they have never done before in parallel, but in a very accelerated timeframe. And it’s all backed by cutting-edge technology, data, and AI. At the same time, the second trend we’re seeing with our clients, and certainly we’ve all been reading about it and hearing about it for the past few years, is the power of talent and the importance of the human side of that equation. . And we think one of the forces that will shape the next decade with talent at the forefront is not just the ability to access talent, but really for organizations to learn to be talent creators, not just consumers. Unleash the potential of humans in their workforce. And it’s going to take technology to unlock that potential. And again, as Daniela just gave some of her examples, to compliment the talent they have in the organization.

The third is durability. This trend is…I would personally say, I’m very happy to see this trend underpinning everything we do and everything our customers are thinking about right now. We believe that every business should be a sustainable business. And each industry looks at this in its own way. But whether it’s consumers, employees, business partners, regulators, or investors, we know we’re headed in a direction where businesses are compelled to act. To bring about change, not just around climate and energy, but in areas like food insecurity and equality. All of these issues are highlighted, and underpinning this, again, the ability to leverage new bleeding technologies to accelerate the pace of change and find solutions to the issues we face as a planet and in the whole society.

The fourth force we see is the metaverse. Now, there’s been a lot of confusion and a lot of talk about the Metaverse, but our view is that the Metaverse is a continuum, and we’re seeing that come to the fore in the market right now. As we examine the metaverse and its impact, just soyou think back to when the internet was in its infancy, we think the impact will be so big. And while this is just an early stage and not everyone can see exactly how the impact will be there, we believe it will not only impact consumers, and of course interesting areas like virtual reality and using AI to bring new experiences to life, but also looking at extended reality, looking at digital twins, smart objects. So how do cars and factories work? What’s happening with edge computing? A look at blockchain and new means of payment. All of these things are going to change the way businesses operate and really the way society operates, and we think that’s going to underpin change as we move forward over the next five to 10 years.

And finally, the fifth force is what we call the ongoing technological revolution. And the ongoing technological revolution is quite a broad category, often pushed by our friends in academia around science, but we believe that in the coming decade the pace of technological innovation will not only continue but increase. accelerate, what we think is going to create positive change. New technologies, whether it’s in quantum computing or in areas, as I said, like blockchain or materials science or biology, or even space, we think that’s going to open up everything new areas of opportunity. And all of these things allow companies, our customers, to find new ways to not only serve their customers, but also to monetize their investments, to impact society, to impact their employees and to cause positive changes for their business as well as for the world around them.

Laurel: Yeah. Kathleen, I feel like some of that acceleration has happened over the last few pandemic years, so businesses and consumers are operating differently from remote healthcare solutions to digital payments, from greater expectations of these immersive virtual experiences. But how then can organizations and technologists continue to innovate to anticipate the future or, as Accenture likes to say, learn from the future? You have some good examples there, but the five different areas all lead to this acceptance of change.

Katherine: Yeah, they do. And they also lead to integrating data into everything, in new ways in every change organizations propose. When we think of learning through the future, we think of organizations and leaders who are constantly looking for new data and ideas, not only inside their organization, but outside the four walls of their organization. . So we like to use the term intentional futurists. These are people, leaders and organizations who use AI-based analytics to find patterns, anticipate trends, detect new sources of growth opportunities, better understand their consumers, customers, other businesses , markets and their employees.