Technologies Changing the Business Landscape
Technology waits for no one. It moves so fast that failing to adapt means being left behind. Since before the dot-com bubble in the 90s, businesses have consistently competed in tech to gain an advantage over other competitors. Potential business grads need to know what to expect and how the business market will change in coming years. To prepare you, here are four key technological concepts that have an impact on business today.
Advanced telecommunications
Telecommunications focuses on the transmission of information through various methods. Since the advent of the cellphone, telecommunications technologies have boomed. While Snapchat and Facetime are commonplace, the next step in video conversation is emulating in-person interaction.
Taken straight from the playbook of an 80s cyberpunk book, augmented reality (AR) and virtual-reality (VR) technologies are changing the landscape of business meetings. What augmented and virtual reality can do is turn your Skype meeting into something that feels much more like a face-to-face meeting. Sometimes, facial signals and body language that can be conveyed through face-to-face conversations become lost in videos chats or phone calls. AR and VR allow for various parties to simulate face-to-face interaction, ensuring a higher quality of conversation.
In another area of telecommunications, fifth-generation (5G) networks are speeding up the rate of mobile information transfer. 5G is similar 4G in the sense that they are both a form of connectivity; however 5G, completely outmatches 4G in the speed of data transfer. And 5G has an impact beyond cell phones. For example, manufacturing times decrease because increased data speed allows better AI decision making.
Robotics and automation
Robotics are commonly used in manufacturing facilities and are growing increasingly popular in the commercial sector. Automation is where artificial intelligence and robotics meet. Automation takes a repetitive task and allocates it to a robot instead of an employee. Often robots will help employees do their jobs before automation substitutes for the employee altogether. Most companies depend on machines or technology as assistants.
Automation is a slow and tedious process. Most manufacturing jobs require precise and arduous labor that is heavily taxing to individual employees. By simplifying and streamlining with automation, the speed of production increases and the rate of errors decreases.
Artificial intelligence
The impact of artificial intelligence is one of the most important topics in various industries in the world. AI is the intelligence behind Siri, Alexa, and other systems. In the business field, AI is commonly used as a tool for data mining, analysis, prediction, and other insights.
AI also attempts to make sense of fluctuating and unpredictable stock behavior and market changes. It is nearly impossible for humans to see and predict patterns in the market. But AI can complete and analyze enormous quantities of transactions. A well-managed program can blow through millions of data points and check for predictable patterns that a human might not recognize.
Blockchain
Blockchain is described as “a digital database containing information (such as records of financial transactions) that can be simultaneously used and shared within a large decentralized, publicly accessible network.” What does this even mean, and why should you care?
Blockchain allows parties involved in a chain of data to access a database and its history without a single user controlling the data. This allows large-scale transparency between the parties while keeping anonymity at the core. A blockchain ledger begins with one person, and the chain spreads as users are added on; but the information is refreshed and redistributed among all parties to ensure clarity.
Keeping ledgers and documents of sensitive information and transactions is a tedious process with a necessary system of numerous checks and balances. Blockchain shortens that process by using the interconnected web of users and encrypted data to serve as the checks and balances. Companies such as Nasdaq use comparable programs to validate financial exchanges. Banks are also taking the first steps to seeing how well these systems work.
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