46
45 EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES | BDO LLP
EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES | BDO LLP
‘For example, the idea of working from home and being as productive as sitting in an office: how do we make remote working really work? How do manual compliance four-eyes processes work when staff are remote? Business travel and conferences – do I need my executives flying around the world to shake hands and make keynote speeches when they can do the whole company globally in a single session? Reconfiguring the way we take holidays – we may not need planes to the same extent, because I can catch a train to Spain and, with an internet connection, work remotely on the way there and start my holiday when I get to the beach. ‘If the world is thinking that now, does that change where we choose to live, where we choose to work, how we invest in infrastructure? If we’re not going to have armies of people sitting in offices, what’s the flip side of that? If that's not going to happen, what is going to happen instead?’
happening COVID-19, remote working, and the green agenda. I think you can combine these things together and see that there’s still an awful lot of things that need to change in order to really make that come to fruition. THE WAY WE TAKE HOLIDAYS – WE MAY NOT NEED PLANES TO THE SAME EXTENT, BECAUSE I CAN CATCH A TRAIN TO SPAIN AND, WITH AN INTERNET CONNECTION , WORK REMOTELY ON THE WAY THERE AND START MY HOLIDAY WHEN I GET TO THE BEACH .
‘Looking at the COVID-19 crisis, it's clear that a lot of the machine learning and AI opportunities that were in plan have been paused as the businesses preserve cash and in many cases fight for survival. Some of the more radical or blue-sky ideas are just not a priority for firms at the moment, which has a knock-on effect on the investor community as the deal pipeline and revenue in these innovative businesses is effectively paused . ‘I do however think that there will be a new blue sky when we start getting back to some kind of normality, so we need to start looking now at what life going to be like on the other side of this. Now we can try to realise our own pitfalls and take the opportunity to do away with some of the old, broken ways. We need to ask: How can we do things better? I think from an investor point of view, that's really where the smart money should be going just now. ‘The next big thing is almost inevitably going to come out of a response to what's
INVESTMENT HORIZONS Blue Hat’s Tim Palmer, digital transformation consultant and AI specialist, looks at the future of tech in the New Reality
Made with FlippingBook HTML5