What do artificial intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things (IoT), and 5G have in common? Along with cloud and virtualization, blockchain, and ubiquitous video, they are the six transformative technologies that promise to change the way companies do business and how people live their lives at the most basic, fundamental levels.
To rate and assess these significant forces of change, IHS Markit is launching Digital Orbit, a new intelligence service that tracks the development, impact, and disruption caused by these six transformative technologies across key industries.
Digital Orbit is meant to shed light on the velocity of technological transformation as once-separate technologies intersect in new and disruptive ways, especially since the pace of change has not been balanced or uniform across industries. Some technologies, for instance, may be poised for adoption more readily than others, while other technologies may exert a more immediate impact on specific industries.
Charting these various points of convergence and divergence is the job of Digital Orbit. The result, said Ian Weightman, senior vice president of IHS Markit and head of the company's technology division, is a powerful insider's look that lets leaders know ahead of time when—and how—these transformative technologies will affect their business.
A major component of Digital Orbit is the Key Influencer Survey,
an appraisal of each transformative technology and its prospects
for adoption from the perspective of important industry influencers
and leaders. Two key measures are used to evaluate the
transformative technologies: readiness, or how prepared a
technology is for adoption by industries; and impact, or how a
technology will change an industry.
Gauging which technologies are readiest for adoption
In the readiness measure, the results show that 87% of organizations have adopted at least one transformative technology. Still, there is plenty of room left for companies and industries to realize the full benefits: Only 26% of key influencer respondents believe that appropriate business models are currently in place to capture full value from these technologies.
Among the six technologies, three were deemed most ready for adoption: AI, cloud and virtualization, and IoT. The three technologies were propelled to the top of the readiness rankings by three measures in particular—tech maturity, ease of use, and business case.
The high readiness score of AI reflects the continued technical advancements being made in the field, along with a clear sense of benefits that AI solutions provide as perceived by participants across different domains and verticals. Meanwhile, the high readiness scores for cloud and virtualization as well as IoT were understandable given that both technologies have been around for more than a decade. Moreover, the two technologies have also seen the highest percentage of projects move beyond the proof-of-concept stage all the way to full deployment.
At the opposite end of the spectrum, blockchain and 5G were considered least ready for adoption. Not only do few examples currently exist of either application being used widely on the enterprise level, both technologies must also contend with considerable hurdles before they experience wider use.
The remaining transformative technology, ubiquitous video, fell
somewhere in between the two extremes.
Determining which technologies will have the most impact
Artificial intelligence was also deemed the most impactful technology, followed closely behind by cloud and virtualization, IoT, blockchain, and 5G. Rated the least impactful was ubiquitous video.
The relatively high impact scores seen in Digital Orbit suggest
that the disruption brought about by transformative technologies
will be significant. This coincides with the responses of key
influencers: 56% of respondents believe transformative technologies
will have a high-to-significant disruptive impact on their industry
within the next three years.
Greatest disruption to occur in consumer industry
A review of the scores for five specific measures in Digital Orbit indicates that the consumer industry is expected to experience the greatest amount of disruption from the transformative technologies. Given that most transformative technologies have already been widely adopted in the consumer industry, it is not surprising that the consumer space is also where the biggest impact from disruption will be felt in the near term.
Digital Orbit is now open for subscription. For more information, visit our Digital Orbit page. Additional information can also be found in the Transformative Technologies section of our website.
Josh Builta is senior principal analyst for transformative
technologies at IHS Markit
Posted April 9, 2019