Avanade defines smart technologies as technologies enabling products such as connected devices, wearables and intelligent automation that allow computers or machines to do work or make decisions traditionally done by humans.
Research highlights include:
· Nearly two thirds (63%) of companies are already experiencing key benefits from their smart technology investments, including increased revenue, improved customer experience and higher employee satisfaction.
· Almost all (92%) believe that it will be easier for organisations to attract and retain top talent as they increase their reliance on smart technologies.
· Close to three quarters (73%) said that they will require more skills in the areas of problem solving (61%), the ability to gather and analyse data (59%), critical thinking (51%) and collaboration (51%) as they blend smart technologies with humans.
· Six in 10 believe smart technologies will play a key role in supporting the customer experience; identifying sales leads (60%) and at-risk customers (49%).
· However, just about eight in 10 (78%) believe that their organisation has not given enough thought to the workplace ethical dilemmas created by the increased use of smart technologies.
Not quite ready: Focus on digital ethics to emerge
While the benefits of smart technology adoption are clear and compelling, C-level executives in particular are grappling with ethical issues stemming from the use of smart technologies. Seventy-eight percent of business and IT leaders believe that their organisation has not given enough thought to the workplace ethical dilemmas created by the increased use of smart technologies. Intentions are clear, however, with a majority targeting up to 10% of their IT budget at this area in the next five years.
“While the adoption of smart technologies may seem threatening to some, the reality is that successful organisations are already realising business results and planning their next round of investments in this area,” said Ashish Kumar, Avanade’s Chief Growth Officer and Digital Lead. “We believe that smart technologies can actually increase the humanity of a digital workplace and help organisations attract and retain the critical talent they need for the future.”
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*Avanade’s survey was conducted from December 2015 to January 2016 by Wakefield Research, an independent research firm. It surveyed 500 C-level executives, business unit leaders and IT decision-makers in the following countries: Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, the UK and the US.
