What makes a particular technology ‘game-changing’?
Finance is vitally important. A technology must provide opportunity for use in business cases to attract the funding required for research and to drive it forward. The extent to which technology can be used independently is another key factor: it’s generally more challenging, or at least takes longer, to establish technologies requiring an entire ecosystem or modifications to existing infrastructure to enable it to work successfully. Humans are ultimately the decisive factor though and technology we don’t use doesn’t break through.
When do people embrace a technology?
It’s often said that ‘convenience is king’. People have to understand why a technology is useful before they start using it. Digital collaboration tools, for example, aren’t just gaining acceptance because they perform a specific function, but also because they provide users with additional benefits too – in this instance, the freedom to work from anywhere they choose.
In general terms, what benefits do you think new technologies will provide in the working environment of the future?
Technologies enable us to hand over tasks that nobody wants to do - for example, jobs that are extremely repetitive, dangerous or harmful to health. This also represents a cost-effective solution for companies because machine systems are less expensive than human labour. This all means job profiles are changing and must be realigned: some tasks are disappearing, while new ones are being created.
The full interview can be found on the PwC-Website.
The full interview can be found on the PwC website.
Find out more about the topic at the European Trend Day on 12th March 2025, where thought leaders and pioneers will discuss the impact AI is having on the world of work.