This is Digital, Episode 41: It’s Not Just AI: 5 Tech Trends Defining the Future

Q&A

Trend 1: The New Productivity Paradigm

Casey: While AI's integration into the workforce isn't new, its applications have become much more sophisticated, significantly enhancing human capabilities. The productivity paradigm now focuses on achieving greater quality and innovation, not just efficiency. It's not about doing more but doing better. This shift mirrors what happened in the 1990s with computers. We're rethinking productivity, and it's no longer just about cutting costs or increasing revenue. It's about leveraging workforce reductions or restructurings with technology to streamline processes and drive improvements.

Erik: When thinking about this trend in action, it's crucial to consider the human element—driving effective training, addressing fears about technology, and showing how it can make their jobs easier and more fulfilling. From my experience with engineering teams, it's not about increasing lines of code. Instead, focus on delivering valuable features and reducing defects. If AI helps developers become more efficient and produce fewer defects, it simplifies their jobs. Setting metrics that reflect these benefits is key for successful implementation.

Trend 2: Cloud & Infrastructure's Resurgence

Jonathan: The cloud has long been driven by cost reduction, scalability, and the desire to move away from on-prem solutions. While some organizations fully leveraged the cloud, others merely executed a "lift and shift" approach, moving existing processes to the cloud without optimization. Today, there's a shift toward enhancing computational power, data access, and interconnectedness to support machine learning, AI initiatives, and better customer products. Organizations are now focusing on optimizing their cloud infrastructure to meet these evolving needs, moving beyond just migrating to truly integrating and scaling with the cloud.

Erik: Large businesses often move to the cloud, only to find they're spending more than they did on infrastructure. Some may consider going back to managing their own infrastructure, while smaller and mid-sized businesses often can't justify running their own data centers. For them, staying in the cloud makes more sense. Cloud providers offer access to these GPUs, making advanced technology more accessible to smaller and mid-sized companies

Trend 3: Synthetic Data's Very Real Potential

Casey: Anyone who knows me knows I'm passionate about our clients' need to access and use data differently and how we invest in serving clients with data. In recent years, data has become crucial for organizations to differentiate. The push for data monetization and treating data as an asset is growing stronger. However, some industries struggle to access, maintain, and secure the right data to make decisions quickly, effectively, and safely, especially in highly regulated sectors. Synthetic data, to clarify, is data not collected manually but manufactured to fill that gap.

Erik: In terms of limitations, in many cases, using synthetic data can be beneficial. For instance, if you have a million brain images—half showing cancer and half clean—you could build a model to detect tumors and identify specific types of cancer. However, creating synthetic brain images for medical scenarios can be risky, and you must be careful when training healthcare models. These models won't replace physicians but aim to support them and enhance efficiency.

Trend 4: Techno-Optimism vs. the Techlash

Jonathan: Over the past few years, attending meetings, dinners, and speaking with others in the ECC, I've encountered two perspectives. Many were excited about the potential of AI and quantum technology, while others, particularly in organizations I volunteer with, expressed fear about job loss and accessibility issues. We're now navigating the balance between immense possibilities and the downside of digital exclusion. This requires us to consider governance, transparency, and the accessibility of tools, ensuring they're understandable without deep technical knowledge.

Trend 5: Humanity's Role in the Digital Age

Casey: Humans have a crucial role to play in the digital age. I believe we need creativity, judgment, and empathy from humans in the digital age. These traits will help us use technology to enhance our capabilities. Without judgment and perspective, technology’s value diminishes. For me, creative and innovative work requires technology to think differently and perform better. It's a cycle where both elements feed into and coexist with each other.

Jonathan: The actual tools these organizations are using are great and hit on many of our goals. However, they're missing consideration for how they're deploying them and how people are affected. To the larger point we've been making: taking advantage of great productivity tools enables organizations to accomplish much more, but it's important not to lose sight of how these tools impact people and their perception of your organization.