Modern workplaces require modern solutions. As enterprise and consumer expectations evolve, as should the surrounding technology.
Improving collaboration and communication for enhanced workplace outcomes is a never-ending story of optimization. Enterprise technology solutions are changing massively year-on-year to solve prevailing and newfound challenges.
The most notable example in recent times is the evolution of video conferencing tools, following the hybrid and remote boom following the pandemic. The world is still adjusting to these new expectations to improve ROI.
From Zoom to Microsoft, both platforms and others are helping to facilitate a better-connected world. Moreover, many industry innovators leveraged this remote environment to introduce new immersive Metaverse platforms as remote communication solutions became more mainstream and sophisticated.
While still growing, the Metaverse space gained significant traction last year following the Meta rebrand. The fire has cooled somewhat; however, other Metaverse service providers are optimizing their platforms to accommodate targetted business use cases.
Additionally, innovative immersive solutions like smart glasses, digital twins, and Web3 platforms can help enterprise end-users in digitally transforming operations ready for the future of work.
Research gathered by Meta UK’s Future of Work division highlighted how 81 percent of questioned individuals want to work in collaborative environments.
Although, the report also claims that only 16 percent believe video calls help them feel present in meetings. A further 14 participants thought video conferencing led to greater collaboration with colleagues. According to Meta, these figures highlight how firms should upgrade from video conferencing laptops to immersive devices to help remote workers feel present.
WEF: Future of Jobs 2023
The World Economic Forum (WEF) released its Future of Jobs Report 2023 last month. In the report, the WEF found that emerging technologies are most likely to affect workplace change.
The report questioned 803 companies employing over 11.3 million workers across 27 industry verticals. Moreover, the report mainly analyses how macro and technology trends impact jobs, skill sets, and transformation strategies across the 2023-2027 timeframe.
In its report, more than 85 percent of questioned organizations identified increased adoption of emerging technology solutions and broadening workplace access to digital services as the most likely trend to drive enterprise transformation, with additional consideration to environmental, social and governance (ESG) standards.
Moreover, digital transformation trends highlight how 75 percent of WEF’s surveyed companies wish to adopt emerging technologies such as big data, cloud computing, and AI in the next five years.
Additionally, 86 percent of firms surveyed expect to incorporate eCommerce solutions and digital platforms. The WEF found that 75 percent of businesses may adopt eCommerce tools, and 81 per cent will adopt education and workforce-ready digital technologies.
Another key takeaway from the WEF Future of Jobs Report 2023 is how the questioned firms predict that emerging technologies will disrupt roughly 44 percent of worker skills.
WEF: Emerging Technology Effects Every Sector
In an interview with the WEF, Jeff Maggioncalda, CEO at Coursera, said that “whether you are a factory worker or on the frontlines or whether you’re a knowledge worker sitting behind a desk. Technology is shifting the way almost every job task will be performed.”
Speaking on the emerging AI technology landscape, Maggioncalda added that his firm’s founder Andrew Ng, says, “AI is the new electricity.” Moreover, adding that AI will integrate into every aspect of society.
Maggioncalda also added:
Some people are calling it a general purpose technology. It will change everything. Whether you’re ready or not, almost anything digital is going to change and become AI enabled.
Saadia Zahidi, World Economic Forum Managing Director, also noted how generative AI is experiencing an acceleration in the enterprise landscape, gaining adoption across various industries. “That’s exactly where there’s some prediction that we’re likely to see further disruption,” Zahidi added.
Despite the influence of AI, the technology only ranks 15th as a general core skill. However, according to the WEF, the skill is set as the third most important in many company training strategies from now until 2027. Moreover, the WEF reports that 75 percent of surveyed organizations are introducing AI over the next five years.
Of the WEF’s surveyed companies, 45 percent believe government funding would greatly assist with skills training, talent acquisition, and reskilling required to adopt emerging solutions.
Automation and AI are already significantly impacting the workforce, and this trend will only accelerate in the coming years, performing an increasing amount of tasks previously done by humans.
Moreover, the shift to a digital economy is creating new opportunities for workers in the technology sector. However, it also displaces some jobs in traditional industries, such as manufacturing and retail.
Furthermore, workers will increasingly need soft skills such as creativity, problem-solving, and communication for working with machines and collaborating with colleagues in a remote globalized workforce.
What does this mean for XR?
Emerging technologies can easily blend and stack to increase usability. Within XR, both hardware and software solutions commonly integrate other emerging technologies to improve ROI outcomes.
XR vendors generally incorporate AI and machine learning into products to improve the performance of workplace immersive solutions’ performance. The increasing demand for big data streaming also forces hardware developers to innovate in areas such as 5G.
XR developer hubs like NVIDIA Omniverse, Unity, and Unreal also contain integrated emerging tools like AI.
Moreover, XR itself is an emerging workplace tool, and many of the same WEF considerations can apply to enterprise-grade immersive solutions.
Immersive technologies like cryptocurrency, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), the blockchain, and decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) were praised by WEF representatives late last year.
In a report at the time, forum members explained that the Metaverse is “already here” despite the then and ongoing development of Web3 solutions. The WEF is enthusiastic about the Metaverse’s potential to alter work practices.
WEF: Web3 and DAO for the Workplace
The group is also interested in how Web3 and DAO platforms can connect communities and businesses digitally.
At the time, the WEF expressed:
As decentralized autonomous organizations are adopted more widely, new types of businesses will emerge that would look more like cooperatives and less than corporations, significantly reducing agency costs.
WEF contributors explored the functions of DAO services and whether the technology infrastructure can provide businesses with dependable networks.
Instead of having hierarchical workplace structures, DAOs give stakeholder communities more power than traditional executives.
The WEF says in the report that Meteverse and DAO-ready businesses can become more agile thanks to reorganized talent pools that allow work to flow to talent.
Moreover, the WEF frames how DAO frameworks can modify conventional jobs like director, representative, project worker, and merchant. DAO value propositions alter how a core group of employees coordinates and delivers work.
Additionally, the technology can offer broader contributor groups that aid in business operations. Providing roles such as HR, finance, accounting, and customer experience an avenue to digitally connect with workforces operating on Metaverse or DAO platforms in the style of the gig economy.
The Verdict
While it may be evident to some that emerging enterprise technologies contain the power to change workplace operations fundamentally. Although, with the current wave of tech trends, the enterprise solutions marketplace may seem like a shark tank.
Figuring out what emerging solution suits a client’s use case can be a hurdle. With so many immersive and emerging solutions available for the workplace, trying to find the best fit is hard.
Will an enterprise benefit from a fleet of VR headsets, MR devices, or smart glasses? Moreover, will software solutions such as AI, digital twins, cloud, and Metaverse platforms provide the ROI required for many business end-users to feel confident with their technology investment?
While some technologies come and go. The impact of current emerging technologies trends is clear. Meanwhile, the working world demands highly skilled experts to enforce and adequately accommodate emerging enterprise tools.
Time will tell how technology changes how the world works, although it appears clear that forward-thinking companies ready to adopt emerging technology will push themselves ahead of the pack.
