Many organisations have invested in digital products and services without fully considering the human, organisational and societal consequences and how consumers would respond to them. This is leading to what David Kirwan, head of technology at Accenture in Ireland, describes as a “tech-clash” – a conflict between business and technology models that are at odds with people’s needs and expectations.
“Covid-19 is the greatest challenge the world has faced in decades and has transformed people’s lives at unprecedented scale. It has impacted every industry. Companies need to innovate, invent and redefine more quickly than ever before,” he continues. “There are growing questions relating to data usage,” Kirwan notes. “People are wary of companies knowing too much about them. We are seeing some shifts with companies like Facebook allowing people to say that they are not interested in certain types of content. Companies need to get the interaction right and work with people rather than pushing everything at them.
“The use of AI has been mainly focused on automating tasks, typically simple repetitive tasks,” he points out. “It should be more collaborative and about augmenting what a person can do. It should not just be focused on automation – the real value is in collaboration.” “The coders analysed patients’ medical charts, taking complex information about diagnoses, treatments and medications, validating the diagnostic codes the healthcare providers had applied to the charts. The coders were already consuming output from an AI system that helped them do this work.”
By that he means the confluence of the rollout of the 5G infrastructure required to control robots operating in remote locations and a drop in the cost of the technology. “What would have been prohibitively capital intensive is within reach for many firms now,” he adds.“There will be significant growth in robotics, but it won’t happen overnight,” says Kirwan. “It will be gradual, but robots will become more visible in everyday settings.