The pace of work has outstripped human capacity, affecting innovation

Microsoft Corp. has introduced Microsoft 365 Copilot, a generative AI tool, to its suite of applications including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Teams. The company is expanding access to the Copilot preview and introducing new features. In conjunction with this announcement, Microsoft released insights from its 2023 Work Trend Index report, titled “Will AI Fix Work?”

The Work Trend Index report surveyed 31,000 individuals across industries in 31 countries, including 14 Asia Pacific markets, and analyzed trillions of signals from emails, meetings, chats, and labor trends on Microsoft 365 and LinkedIn. The findings indicate that the pace of work has outstripped human capacity, affecting innovation. The report suggests that next-generation AI can alleviate the burden of work, leading to increased creativity and productivity.

Vinod Muralidharan, General Manager Modern Work at Microsoft Asia, highlighted the transformative potential of AI in the workplace. He emphasized the need for leaders to leverage AI to remove mundane tasks, foster creativity, and develop AI skills among employees.

The report offers three key insights for business leaders:

• Digital debt hinders innovation: The volume of data, emails, and chats has surpassed our ability to process it efficiently, resulting in digital debt. This debt affects productivity, with 72 per cent of individuals in the Asia Pacific region reporting a lack of time and energy to complete their work, making them three times more likely to struggle with innovation. The average person spends 57 per cent of their Microsoft 365 time on communication and only 43 per cent on creation. Inefficient meetings were identified as the top productivity disruption.
• AI-employee alliance: Employees prioritize the promise of relief over fears of job displacement, while managers seek to empower employees with AI rather than replace them. Although 58 per cent of respondents in Asia Pacific expressed concerns about AI replacing their jobs, 78 per cent would delegate tasks to AI to reduce their workloads. Three out of four people in the region are comfortable using AI for not just administrative tasks but also analytical and creative aspects of their roles. Leaders are more likely to see AI as valuable for boosting productivity rather than cutting headcount.
• AI aptitude for all employees: All employees, not just AI experts, will need to develop core competencies to thrive in the AI era. Leaders anticipate that 85 per cent of employees in the Asia Pacific region will require new AI-related skills. However, 71 per cent of individuals currently feel they lack the necessary capabilities to perform their work. The demand for an AI-centric skillset will impact everything from resumes to job postings.

To support businesses in the AI era, Microsoft is launching the Microsoft 365 Copilot Early Access Program for select enterprise customers. They are also introducing new capabilities to Copilot and Microsoft Viva, such as Copilot in Whiteboard, Copilot in PowerPoint with DALL-E integration for custom image creation, Copilot in Outlook for email writing guidance, Copilot in OneNote for drafting plans and organizing information, and Copilot in Viva Learning for personalized learning journeys.

Additionally, Microsoft is rolling out the Semantic Index for Copilot to all Microsoft 365 E3 and E5 customers, aiming to assist customers in becoming AI-ready.

Tags: MicrosoftPrnasiaWork Trend Index

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Business and IT leaders need to incorporate trends into their D&A strategies

Gartner, Inc. has identified the top 10 data and analytics (D&A) trends for 2023 that can enable D&A leaders to unlock new sources of value and capitalize on business opportunities amidst uncertainty. These trends emphasize the need for delivering measurable value at scale, managing AI risks, enhancing observability, embracing data sharing, driving sustainability, and more.

At the Gartner Data & Analytics Summit in Mumbai, Gartner analysts shared insights on these trends, urging business and IT leaders to incorporate them into their D&A strategies.

Trend 1: Value Optimization D&A leaders often struggle to communicate the value they provide in business terms. Value optimization requires building value stories that establish clear connections between D&A initiatives and mission-critical priorities.

Trend 2: Managing AI Risk The increased use of AI introduces new risks that must be managed effectively. This involves mitigating ethical risks, addressing data poisoning or fraud detection circumvention, and implementing AI governance and responsible AI practices to build trust.

Trend 3: Observability enables organizations to understand the behaviour of their D&A systems and answer questions about their performance. By reducing the time to identify performance issues and making data-driven decisions, observability enhances operational efficiency.

Trend 4: Data Sharing Is Essential Data sharing, both internally and externally, creates opportunities for collaboration and value creation. Adopting a data fabric design enables organizations to share and leverage reusable data assets across heterogeneous sources.

Trend 5: D&A Sustainability D&A leaders should not only provide analysis for enterprise ESG projects but also optimize their own processes for sustainability improvement. This includes using renewable energy, energy-efficient hardware, and adopting practices that minimize energy consumption.

Trend 6: Practical Data Fabric Data fabric, a data management design pattern, leverages metadata to analyse and recommend data management solutions. It enables users to consume data confidently and empowers citizen developers with integration and modelling capabilities.

Trend 7: Emergent AI Emergent AI, driven by technologies like ChatGPT and generative AI, will revolutionize scalability, versatility, and adaptability. This next wave of AI will enable its application in new scenarios, making it more pervasive and valuable.

Trend 8: Converged and Composable Ecosystems Converged D&A ecosystems ensure cohesive operation through seamless integrations, governance, and technical interoperability. Composable ecosystems deliver configurable applications and services that enable scalability and flexibility to meet changing business needs.

Trend 9: Consumers Become Creators Predefined dashboards are giving way to conversational and embedded user experiences that address specific content consumers’ needs. Organizations can empower users by providing easy-to-use automated insights and conversational experiences to foster content creation.

Trend 10: Humans Remain the Key Decision Makers While automation plays a vital role in decision-making, human involvement remains crucial. Organizations need to consider the human element in decision support and prioritize data literacy programs that combine data, analytics, and human decision-making.

Gareth Herschel, VP Analyst at Gartner, emphasized the importance of engaging stakeholders and considering human psychology and values in driving D&A adoption. By embracing these trends, organizations can unlock the full potential of their data assets and gain a competitive edge in the evolving landscape.

Tags: D&A leadersGartner

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1000minds uses explicit criteria and explicit human judgments

1000minds has launched an AI assistant as part of its decision-making and conjoint analysis software using Microsoft Azure OpenAI services. OpenAI’s GPT technology is also used in the popular ChatGPT service.

The 1000minds AI assistant helps people build their decision model while keeping them in the driver’s seat, which is incredibly useful for learning how to use 1000minds and for testing its use in new domains.

For example, if people are comparing electric cars, the AI assistant will suggest criteria such as recharge time, speed, safety, and distance, and optionally provide examples of electric cars to consider.

1000minds’ commitment to AI safety best practices, including a “human-in-the-loop” approach, means that people are involved every step of the way. With just a few words about what they want to compare, e.g., “electricity generation options” or “candidates for head of HR”, the AI assistant generates suggestions that people can adapt to meet their needs by incorporating their own knowledge and expertise.

It’s the perfect marriage: 1000minds’ structured decision-making combined with the OpenAI language model, which works well for this kind of application given well-framed prompts designed to get good suggestions.

The AI assistant also supports ideation with 1000minds’ expert group decision-making tools, and builds models for conjoint analysis, discrete choice experiments and preferences surveys.

Unlike “opaque” AI-based decision-making, in which the reasoning behind a decision can’t be fully explained, 1000minds uses explicit criteria and explicit human judgments. This creates a fully auditable, defensible, and refinable decision model that can be trusted.

“Combining 1000minds’ PAPRIKA algorithm and OpenAI’s GPT, two incredible technologies, is a brilliant idea,” said Colin Smithies, Business Intelligence Analyst at Te Herenga Waka – Victoria University of Wellington. “1000minds has always been very powerful and user-friendly, and now getting AI help with specifying the criteria for your decision is extremely helpful. It’s fantastic!”

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To forge a path forward for their organizations, many CEOs are redefining VUCA

DC conducted a survey of close to 400 CEOs across the world, supplemented by several one-on-one interviews, and identified five mandates to help business leaders scale their digital businesses in a rapidly changing digital world. Our survey data revealed that the number one concern is the economy – economic pressures, such as inflation, rising interest rates, and slowing demand.

Mandate #1: Redefine VUCA

To forge a path forward for their organizations, many CEOs are redefining VUCA.

What is VUCA?

A concept that has gained wider awareness over the past several years, VUCA is an acronym for:

• Volatility
• Uncertainty
• Complexity
• Ambiguity

So… how are CEOs redefining VUCA for their businesses and their leadership teams?

In a recorded interview played during my IDC Directions 2023 presentation, Simon Paris, CEO of Finastra, talked about how his leadership team has addressed and adapted to the business and economic uncertainty of the last twelve months by redefining VUCA with… well, VUCA. Where his leadership team encountered volatility, they remained true to their vision. When faced with uncertainty, they focused more time on understanding. When complexity surfaced, they looked for clarity. And, when dealing with ambiguity, they employed agility to move forward.

Many CEOs have told us how adaptation is the key to survival as they deal with risks across the world.

• The CEO of a global telecoms organization discussed how his leadership team is trying to deal with the high interest rates and the higher cost of capital for customers and his own organization.
• A CEO of a Swiss-based train operator told us about the challenges posed by rising electricity costs that have added 15-20 per cent to his cost base in 12 months.
• The CEO of Turkey-based multibillion dollar manufacturer is trying to navigate a difficult geopolitical environment and determine which markets to pursue.
• The CEO of a large Australian health insurance organization, talked about his company’s major investments in digital and how he and his leadership team are now focusing on closing digital business execution gaps.
• A CEO of a financial services software organization highlighted how is very focused on the imperative of closing the digital skills gap.

As IDC analyst Dan Vesset discussed in his Directions 2023 presentation, organizations must accelerate decision velocity to address many of these challenges. By leveraging new data value chains to accelerate decision velocity, organizations can conduct better multi-scenario planning, more accurately assess retention rates by geography, and determine when to onboard and offboard suppliers to drive profitability.

Mandate #2: Invest to Win

The next mandate is determining the right investment strategy. According to Michael Porter, the well-known business academic, the worst mistake organizations can make in a downturn is to make cuts across the board. With that in mind, CEOs are taking a more strategic view of investment opportunities.

In a clip played at IDC Directions 2023, Bas Burger, CEO of BT global, shared his thoughts with us. He discussed how companies that make investments during recessions – when times are tough – end up winning in the end and growing their market share. This is the philosophy he and his organization have adopted. So, growth, perhaps surprisingly, is the word of the year for CEOs in 2023, as they look for areas to invest in to keep teams motivated and investors happy.

The second most popular word is technology. Close to 90 per cent of CEOs plan to maintain or increase technology investments in 2023 – focusing those technology investments on revenue-generating activities. IDC’s research shows that organizations that provide more advanced customer experiences are delivering close to double the business growth compared to their peers in the industry. IDC analyst Marci Maddox discussed the critical role of the customer data engine in her IDC Directions presentation.

IDC has forecasted that 40 per cent of the revenue from the G2000 companies will come from digital products, services, and experiences by 2026. Already we are seeing some notable examples:

• Bank of America’s realized a 22 per cent increase in mobile sales linked to a mobile usage surge
• Nike digital saw 34 per cent growth in the last quarter
• Kroger is aiming to double its digital business by 2023

Mandate #3: Build Trust

As organizations start to build and operate their digital businesses, they will also need to build trust. It’s no surprise that security risk and compliance, which are at the heart of the Future of Trust framework, are a technology priority for CEOs in 2023. IDC analyst Grace Trinidad discussed the Future of Trust framework during her Directions 2023 presentation.

Some of the more progressive and strategic organizations are moving into ESG and privacy as they look to deliver outcomes – trusted governance, trusted ecosystems, and trusted enabled commerce – not only internally but increasingly externally into the ecosystem. But they face some challenges and complexity as they look to build out trust for the digital business in a geopolitical context and operate in a global economy that is increasingly digital in nature.

As every organization grows its digital business and moves data and intellectual property (IP) across suppliers, customers, and partners in a digital ecosystem, various questions are being raised. What if a court in Europe demands data customer data for national security reasons? What if an organization must ensure that customer data for customers in Saudi Arabia is processed and stored locally? What if it is the target of a state-sponsored cybersecurity attack going after patent information and IP. These digital sovereignty concerns and scenarios must be addressed as the next element of the future of trust framework that CEOs need to focus on to straddle the business and geo-political worlds.

Mandate #4: Reskill and Augment

We are all witnessing a major talent overhaul, as companies across the world come to terms with hybrid working models. Companies are shifting from external approaches to hiring skills and using external service providers to strategies focused on reskilling and automation. As they reskill their organizations to deliver on the next phase of the digital business, organizations will need to connect reskilling to automation initiatives – the enterprise automation 2.0 strategy. IDC analysts Amy Loomis and Gina Smith discussed the IDC Skills Framework in their IDC Directions 2023 presentation.

Automation must be infused throughout the enterprise – across IT, business, and the software value chains. To accomplish this, IT and business leaders will need technology architectures that help them scale the approach across the organization. And, for these efforts to succeed, CIOs must raise their visibility and become key players – orchestrators of technology architectures, budgets, and stakeholders.

Mandate #5: Tech to Scale

As CIOs take on these responsibilities, they must contend with spiralling cloud costs – 64 per cent of CIO’s are spending more on cloud than originally budgeted. They need to optimize cloud investments, but must look beyond efficiency, which is just an intermediate goal, and focus on creating sustainable value. Our survey data shows that in the next two years CIOs will move away from treating efficiency as an end-goal and look toward business outcomes, agility, and new revenue streams.

The more prominent role of the CIO is already reflected in changing organizational reporting structures. According to IDC survey results, 60 per cent of CIO’s are now reporting directly to the CEO as they become more involved in business strategy and work with the entire C-Suite to redefine VUCA, accelerate decision velocity, make strategic investments, build trust, and reskill and augment their workforces.

Technology suppliers can play a key supporting role. With a focus on helping their customers achieve quantifiable business outcomes they can help organizations execute on these five mandates.

Tags: IDCVUCA

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Rising inflation and currency devaluations made technology investments costlier

According to the latest data released by IDC’s Worldwide Black Book: Live Edition, IT spending by Indian enterprises and service providers is projected to grow 7.8 per cent in 2023, albeit more slowly than in 2022. Consumer IT spending (dominated by consumer purchases of devices such as mobiles, tablets, PCs, wearables, and peripherals) saw a drastic decline in Q4 2022 and turned cautious due to rising prices, pulling the growth to 2.1 per cent in 2023. Overall, Indian IT spending (which includes spending by enterprises, service providers, and consumers) is projected to grow by 4.7 per cent in 2023 to USD 86.7 billion in constant currency, lower than the 5.8 per cent growth IDC reported for 2023 in its October press release. Enterprises’ immediate concerns impacting IT budgets are inflation-driven price increases, staffing shortages, IT supply chain constraints – especially on the networking side, and the impact of the weakening global economy on expected business revenues.

Reserve Bank of India forecasted moderated GDP growth in 2023 due to the expected global economic slowdown and persistently elevated oil prices, with recovery expected in 2024. However, India’s GDP remains higher than some peer economies, owing to the importance of a large domestic consumer base and less reliance on global demand.

“Rising inflation and currency devaluations made technology investments costlier. Enterprises focused on immediate needs by either stretching or prioritizing budgets. But with worries around weakening global macroeconomic situation, spending growth has moderated,” says Vinay Gupta, Research Director, IT Spending Guides, IDC Asia/Pacific. “Enterprises still face challenges impacting their business and will look at consumption-based models to drive their focus on transformation,” he added.

With investments by enterprises and service providers, infrastructure spending (dominated by server, storage, and networking equipment) had a banner year in 2022. However, with a moderating economic outlook, spending growth will slow in 2023. Enterprises aim to drive efficiencies, optimize cost using automation tools and prioritize as-a-service consumption model for infrastructure purchases avoiding significant CAPEX investments.

Domestic IT Services spending is projected to grow 8.7 per cent in 2023, driven by enterprises’ need to increase customer engagement and satisfaction, launch new products/services, and improve operational efficiency to drive revenue growth and profitability. Enterprises’ increasing adoption of cloud and co-location services drives the managed services market. The managed services market hence resists immediate impact from adverse economic scenarios. Project-oriented services are guided by the need for system integration and IT consulting services but are susceptible to declines in business confidence.

Software spending is projected to grow 15 per cent in 2023, driven by higher adoption of cloud-based solutions. Automation-related platforms and tools, security, workplace solutions (collaboration, content management, virtual meeting, unified communications), data and analytics initiatives/projects, infrastructure, and IT operation optimization initiatives are still focused areas for enterprises despite the moderating economic growth.

Due to high inflation, dwindling retail consumer demand impacted sales of mobiles, PC, notebooks, hardcopy peripherals, and tablets affecting consumer IT spending. Mobile phones constitute the lion’s share by value of consumer technology spending in India. Mobile phone shipments declined in 4Q2022, and 2022 had the lowest shipments since 2019. Expectations are that concerns around rising prices and higher inventory in the channel will persist until the first half of 2023, with an elongated recovery after that. The sale of traditional PCs (including desktops, notebooks, and workstations) grew marginally by shipment in 2022, with similar challenges and expected recovery in 2023 as that of mobile phones.

Tags: IndiaIT

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The business environment is changing faster than many leaders think

A new report by MIT Technology Review Insights seeks to understand how organizations approach transformation and the obstacles they encounter in adapting to a continually changing business and technology environment.

The report, “Evolutionary organizations reimagine the future,” is produced in partnership with Thoughtworks and draws on a survey of 275 executives and business leaders along with in-depth interviews with digital transformation, business strategy, and emerging technology experts from organizations including Prudential Financial, PEXA, and INSEAD.

The findings are as follows:

Digital transformation is not solely a technology issue. Adopting new technology for its own sake does not set the organization up to continue to adapt to changing circumstances. Among survey respondents, however, transformation is still synonymous with tech, with 70 per cent planning a new technology adoption in the next year, but only 41 per cent pursuing changes to their business model.

The business environment is changing faster than many leaders think. Most survey respondents (81 per cent) believe their organization is more adaptable than average and nearly all (89 per cent) say that they’re keeping up with or ahead of their competitors—suggesting a wide gap between the rapidly evolving reality and executives’ perceptions of their preparedness.

All organizations must build capabilities for continuous reinvention. The only way to keep up is for organizations to continually change and evolve, but most traditional businesses lack the strategic flexibility necessary to do this. Nearly half of business leaders outside the C-suite (44 per cent), for example, say organizational structure, silos, or hierarchy are the number-one obstacle to transformation at their firm.

Focusing on customer value and empowering employees are keys to organizational evolution. The most successful transformations prioritize creating customer value and enhancing customer and employee experience. Meeting evolving customer needs is the constant source of value in a world where everything is changing. However, many traditional organizations fail to take this long view, with only 15 per cent of respondents most concerned about failing to meet customer expectations if they fail to transform.

Rapid experimentation requires the mindset to accept failure and the ability to recover quickly. Organizations agree that iterative, experimental processes are essential to finding the right solutions, with 81 per cent saying they have adopted agile practices. Fewer are confident, however, in their ability to execute decisions quickly (76 per cent)—or to shut down initiatives that aren’t working (60 per cent).

Evolutionary organizations will succeed in the future. Companies that develop the capability to repeatedly reinvent what they do—not just the technology they use to do it—will be most prepared to respond to future disruptive technologies, market ecosystem changes, and societal shifts. When adaptive structures and mindsets are woven into strategies and operating models, organizational value is created and extends beyond that of a single digital transformation initiative.

“Successful transformation requires more than just adopting new technology—it demands a focus on building an organization’s capability for continual evolution,” says Laurel Ruma, global director of custom content for MIT Technology Review. “Enterprises that develop the ability to repeatedly reinvent themselves will be the ones to succeed in the future.”

“Transformation suggests there’s a beginning and an end. Yet this research shows that organizations must constantly evolve and adapt to changing market dynamics and customer needs,” said Marcelo De Santis, Chief Digital Officer, Thoughtworks. “For the modern digital business, transformation is a continuous series of ‘experiments’ in pursuit of building an ‘evolutionary mindset’ organically throughout all levels of the organization – one shift at a time.”

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Less than of data and analytics teams provide value to the organization

Less than half of data and analytics (D&A) leaders (44 per cent) reported that their team is effective in providing value to their organization, according to a new Gartner, Inc. survey. Chief data and analytics officers (CDAOs) must focus on presence, persistence, and performance to succeed in their role and deliver measurable business results.

“D&A is in the business of driving stakeholder value,” said Donna Medeiros, Senior Director Analyst, at Gartner. “The most successful CDAOs are outperforming their peers by projecting an executive presence and building an agile and strategic D&A function that shapes data-driven business performance and operational excellence.”

The survey was conducted online from September through November 2022 among 566 D&A leaders globally. Gartner analysts are discussing the survey findings and how CDAOs can drive business value during the Gartner Data & Analytics Summit, taking place in Orlando through Wednesday.

Successful CDAOs Project Executive Presence

The survey found that D&A leaders who rated themselves as “effective” or “very effective” across 17 different executive leadership traits correlated with those reporting high organizational and team performance. For example, 43 per cent of top-performing D&A leaders reported effectiveness in committing time to their own professional development, compared with 19 per cent of low performers.

“Successful CDAOs must be elite leaders,” said Alan Duncan, Distinguished VP Analyst, Gartner. “Top-performing CDAOs invest in their success by developing skills to thrive in ambiguous circumstances, articulate compelling value stories and identify D&A products and services that can drive business impact.”

CDAOs Must be Persistent to Meet New Demands

The survey found that CDAOs are tasked with a broad range of responsibilities, including defining and implementing D&A strategy (60 per cent), oversight of D&A strategy (59 per cent), creating and implementing D&A governance (55 per cent) and managing data-driven culture change (54 per cent).

Furthermore, many D&A functions are receiving increased investment, including data management (65 per cent), data governance (63 per cent) and advanced analytics (60 per cent). The mean reported D&A budget is $US5.41 million, and 44 per cent of D&A teams increased in size in the last year.

“The demands being placed upon D&A, as well as increased investment, reflect a growing confidence in CDAOs’ abilities and recognition of the data office as an indispensable business function,” said Medeiros. “However, this leads to more work as pressure grows for D&A to achieve tangible business results.”

Given the scope and complexity of demands being placed on D&A teams, the lack of available talent has quickly become a top impediment to D&A success, as reported by 39 per cent of respondents. The top six roadblocks to D&A reported in the survey are all human-related challenges.

To build an effective D&A team, CDAOs must have a robust talent management strategy that goes beyond hiring ready-made talent. This should include education, training and coaching for data-driven culture and data literacy, both within the core D&A team and the broader business and technology communities.

D&A Performance Must Tie to Business Strategy

The survey found that 78 per cent of respondents rank corporate or organizational strategy and vision as one of the top three inputs to the D&A strategy. Additionally, 68 per cent are prioritizing D&A initiatives based on alignment to strategic goals.

“CDAOs who prioritize strategy over tactics are the most successful,” said Duncan. “Because the CDAO serves multiple stakeholders across the business, they must align with organizational strategic priorities and focus on selling the D&A vision to the CEO, CIO and CFO as key influencers.”

Tags: Data and analyticsGartner

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Many technology leaders entered 2023 prepared for a potential recession

Despite the current economic uncertainty, 72 per cent of high-tech leaders in the U.S., Canada and Western Europe have plans to grow revenue in 2023, according a survey by Gartner, Inc. Furthermore, nearly half of those leaders believe they will be able to outperform their competition this year.

The Gartner survey was conducted in the second half of 2022 among 195 respondents in the U.S, Canada, the U.K., France, and Germany to understand how economic turbulence poses challenges to general managers, how confident they are in their ability to achieve their plans and the measures planned to tackle the uncertainty.

“Outperforming the market through an uncertain market requires an above average ability to execute on revenue ambitions,” said Mark McDonald, Vice President, and Gartner Fellow. “The survey results indicate that almost half of firms (46 per cent) do not have a sufficient ability to execute to reliably realize their revenue goals.”

The survey found that many technology leaders entered 2023 prepared for a potential recession. Paradoxically many of the actions taken concentrated on reducing costs rather than focusing on growing revenue and market relevance.

Raising the Relevance of Technology Solutions Is the Key to Growth
Gartner forecasts overall IT spending will grow 2.4 per cent in 2023, with enterprise IT spending projected to grow 4.1 per cent. The context of IT spending is changing as buyers increasingly value and make investments in business outcomes rather than buying solutions.

“Changes in context challenge the relevance of technology solutions. Lower relevance reduces willingness to pay and renew relationships. Gartner sees relevance as the connection between a provider’s solution and how applicable it is to current customer needs. That connection exists at every level from the C-level to individual developers. Without relevance, we see sales cycles extend and renewals at greater risk,” said McDonald.

Context is dynamic requiring leaders to raise their relevance across three situations — the now, and whenever context changes in the near term, with the goal of positioning solutions for future growth when economic conditions turn favourable in the next economy.

“It is up to the provider to know when context changes and to rebuild context through refocusing messaging and repositioning to meet customers where they are,” said McDonald.

Tags: GartnerHigh tech leadersIT spending

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Generative AI initiatives do not solve the fundamental challenges AI faces

The palpable excitement and potential opportunity around ChatGPT, Stable Diffusion and other Generative AI sensations is real, but Generative AI doesn’t solve any of the market challenges which face any type of AI. In a new report, Omdia suggests that Generative AI is not magic.

“Generative AI initiatives do not solve the fundamental challenges AI faces – bias, privacy, responsibility, consistency and explainability” said Mark Beccue, Principal Analyst, Omdia, “In fact, Generative AI largely compounds these issues.” For example, Large Language Models (LLMs) which are the source of most Generative AI outputs are trained on public data that may include toxic language or biased content for race, gender, sexual orientation, ability, language, culture and more, which means the outputs themselves can be biased or inappropriate. Another example, Generative AI outputs aren’t easily explained – as with most deep learning AI, the results are not easily traceable to sources. While explainability is a challenge across AI, it’s even more of an issue for generative AI outputs which supposedly by definition, “created” as something new.

2023 will be a very early market stage for Generative AI. Omdia predicts this year there will be an explosion of creative innovation around how Generative AI might be used, as well as a great deal of confusion about what Generative AI is and what it does.

Omdia notes other market trends shaping the trajectory for Generative AI, including the race to build and monetize LLMs and the key role cloud compute providers play. Omdia’s Generative AI Market Landscape 2023 examines all these issues and more. The report will help readers understand the rapidly shifting Generative AI market landscape by identifying key drivers and barriers, market trends, the dominant use cases, who the key players are, why they are so key, and what our team of AI analyst predict will happen throughout the Generative AI ecosystem in 2023.

Tags: ChatGPTGenerative AIOmdiaPrnasia

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Supply-chain disruptions accentuated the necessity of widespread digitization

The agriculture industry is facing several pressing concerns, including extreme vulnerability to climate change, labour shortages, inefficient agri-food system, and evolving consumer preferences for transparency and sustainability. In this context, innovations in technology are driving the next wave of revolution in agriculture, paving the way for more sustainable, efficient, and resilient agricultural practices, says GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

Kiran Raj, Practice Head of Disruptive Tech at GlobalData, comments: “Emerging technologies such as AI, blockchain, IoT, robotics, data analytics, and connected sensors continue to shape the innovation trajectory in agriculture. However, these advances will require all the industry players to collaborate to unlock the new pockets of value in terms of enhanced productivity, improved efficiency, and greater sustainability.”

Shagun Sachdeva, Project Manager of Disruptive Tech at GlobalData, comments: “Supply-chain disruptions resulting from COVID-19 pandemic and Russia-Ukraine war accentuated the necessity of widespread digitization and responsible innovation in the agriculture industry. Smart agriculture practices in terms of exploring smart crop varieties, discovering novel genetic features, and advanced digital farming solutions renewed a sense of optimism. Signals from all angles right from policymakers, investors, technology companies, to researchers suggest that there will be growing momentum behind the shift toward agriculture 4.0.”

The Innovation Explorer database of GlobalData’s Disruptor Intelligence Centre reveals some of the key innovation areas in agriculture to obtain higher yields, lower costs, and improved sustainability.

Agrivoltaics – Regenerative Agriculture

Agrivoltaics is food–energy–water nexus (FEW) that involves crops cultivation beneath solar panels, simultaneously utilizing land for both agriculture and energy production. Agrivoltaics farming offers potential benefits in terms of increasing renewable energy production, increasing sustainable food productions, and preserving land and water resources. In November 2022, Mirai Solar developed PV shade screen to be used in areas with high solar radiation levels to protect plants from excessive sunlight while generating electricity. In May 2022, Unilever formed a regenerative-agriculture investment fund worth $US103.9 million.

Smart Monitoring Technology

Whether its drone farming or IoT sensors and chips, smart monitoring technology solutions offer a variety of ways to farmers to improve the observation and care of crops and livestock in a cost-effective manner. In February 2023, SLT-Mobitel Enterprise introduced the Fazenda Smart Agro solution in Sri-Lanka by integrating IoT and AI-based technology. In 2022, Bayer’s Crop Protection Innovation Lab developed an IoT device ‘Digital Yellow Trap’, which alerts farmers of threats in their fields.

Agrobots

An agrobot is an autonomous robot designed to assist with farming tasks, reducing the need for manual labour, and increasing productivity. In FIRA 2023 (International Forum for Agricultural Robotics) three different agrobots debuted. Exxact robotics introduced “Traxx Concept H2 prototype”, which was powered by hydrogen fuel cell.

Smart greenhouses

Agritech companies are investing in IoT-based greenhouse automation for plant growth monitoring to minimize human intervention. Companies are recruiting automation specialists in the field of data management and robotics, as well as farming experts to track crop health. In April 2022, The Department of Agriculture-Regional Field Office (DA-RFO)-10 launched P100-M smart greenhouse in the Phillipines.

Algae-based carbon capture technology

Algae-based bioenergy production is seen as a growing trend. As the technology advances and more algae-based products become available, algae will be the spotlight crop of the future as it can be cultivated on marginal lands, and in water that is unsuitable for traditional farming, and the ecological impact of algae cultivation on the environment is much lower than other crops. In April 2022, Brilliant Planet announced its plan around economic, gigaton-scale carbon capture using algae.

Sachdeva concludes: “With the current scale of investments in smart agritech, it is safe to say that technology is making meaningful contribution to agriculture and allied industries such as finance and insurance, and it will go a long way in transforming these industries. To handle several disruptive forces successfully, the industry will need to redesign business models, realign the traditional roles, and create co-investment opportunities for private, public, and philanthropic sectors to finance sustainable and commercially viable solutions in agriculture’s tech-driven future.”

Tags: AgricultureGlobalData

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