For the white-collar worker, video conferencing is the new norm. It’s even spilt over into healthcare, with telemedicine on the rise due to the outbreak of COVID-19. But, there’s more to how technology will change the future of work than video calls and Slack messaging.
It’s undeniable that the blurred line between home and office is changing business. One sign of the shift is BT’s BT’s launch this month of a new dedicated business unit in the UK this month of a new dedicated business unit in the UK to target the SoHo (Single/Small office/Home office) market, which includes more than 95% of the country’s private sector companies.
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As early as May 2020, BT had already committed to connecting 20m households and businesses with fibre over this decade, investing US$14.5bn (GBP12bn) to the project. This huge programme of work seems likely to be justified in the wake of the 2020 shock as more businesses downsize their offices and more employees work increasingly from home.
The shift will reach beyond the pandemic; the future of work will be shaped not only by fibre but also by 5G technologies and the new capabilities these will bring to collaboration, visualisation and connectivity.
How technology will change the Future of Work: Collaboration
A recent GlobalData report on the telco sector notes that the global total of fixed wireless access (FWA) accounts for business and residential were 32.4m in 2020. While FWA only accounted for 2.5% of fixed broadband lines globally last year, the rate increased by 13.7% on the year prior. Post-pandemic, GlobalData forecasts the growth of global FWA accounts will stabilise to a CAGR of 7.5% over 2021–2025.
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"The COVID-19 pandemic has given way to this rise in appreciation for fast, reliable and strong home broadband as the world continued to operate from home under lockdown conditions," says Madison Galati, telecoms market data & intelligence analyst at GlobalData.
"The demand for home broadband led some operators, like BT and TIM Italy, to speed up their fibre network rollout. Furthermore, with employees’ preference for a hybrid/remote working environment post-pandemic, this demand for faster, stronger and more reliable home broadband will continue and present further monetisation opportunities for telcos."
Surveys by GlobalData have found that 44% of employees want to work in a hybrid environment between home and office. What this means is more growth in collaboration, one of the five categories that GlobalData analysts have identified as the framework of the 'Future of Work' in an overarching thematic report.
Collaboration means more than online communication, however. It also includes customer relationship management (CRM) platforms such as those provided by Salesforce and Oracle.
“The CRM marketplace has become a battleground for vendors, as customer experience is now a strategic imperative for companies of all sizes,” the GlobalData analysts write. “Once primarily a solution for helpdesks, sales contact management and lead tracking, CRM solutions are evolving and expanding to adjacent areas such as marketing and partner management.”
The most active CRM company in M&A is Salesforce, which has announced several major acquisitions since January 2018. They include the $15.7bn purchase of Tableau and the $6.5bn takeover of MuleSoft. These two deals gave Salesforce greater access to enterprise data, no matter where it is stored.
More recently, Salesforce lined up the acquisition of Slack for $27.7bn. As a result, Slack will be integrated into every Salesforce Cloud and act as the new interface for Salesforce Customer 360.
The company to look out for, however, is Facebook. The social media giant’s Workplace software tool is making bold strides away from the consumer market into enterprise, with more than 200m customers as of May. Within that base are 30,000 organisations using Workplace, including 7m paid subscribers to the platform.
With free trials and monthly per-user pricing currently starting at $4 for smaller organisations/teams and $8 for more complex ones, the attraction to Facebook is clear. Competitors will therefore need to prove their worth on factors other than price as collaboration changes in the future of work.
How technology will change the Future of Work: Visualisation
Facebook’s investments in next-stage technologies such as virtual reality (VR) may also dovetail with its business interests further down the line. This is because visualisation is another key element of the Future of Work.
“Visualisation involves the use of images or graphics to convey information or communicate a message,” explain GlobalData's analysts. “Workers today are required to aggregate, analyse and interpret vast amounts of data.”
In the digital era, workers have a new set of tools through which to handle complex tasks and interact with an ever-changing and expanding amount of information.
Data visualisation is one example: tools that incorporate animation, interactivity and multimedia to speed up analysis and facilitate decision-making.
Digital twins, meanwhile, can be used to replicate production processes in the virtual arena. While applications in the office are currently limited, digital twins might offer decision-makers an overarching visualisation of operations. By making use of a 3D map, for example, a digital twin can provide real-time monitoring of building spaces to reduce energy wastage, optimise use and even limit disease spread.
Extended reality (XR) may be another answer to how technology will change the Future of Work. Augmented reality (AR) headsets and smart glasses can be used to access online environments, like Spatial’s collaboration platform in which workers use 3D avatars in a virtual workspace.
Microsoft meanwhile offers Mesh, a mixed-reality, cloud-based meeting app that can allow a person to digitally access a remote location for shared experiences. This enterprise-grade solution is ideal for work revolving around 3D physical models.
How technology will change the Future of Work: Connectivity and 5G
Almost all of these cutting-edge technologies belong to the Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystem, where a system of connected sensors and actuators control and monitor the environment, along with the things and people that move within it.
As Verdict recently reported, IoT is potentially an even more pervasive kind of tech than today’s computers and mobile devices, but not as things currently stand.
Broadscale 5G adoption needs to take off for the next stage of pervasive IoT to happen. The resulting 'massive IoT' will entail the use of low-cost sensors and long-life batteries for smart meters, cities, buildings and homes, along with fleet management across a wide area as opposed to the localised kind of 5G coverage that is currently enabled.
5G will transform communication infrastructure by allowing for faster data speeds. Second-tier cities will benefit from this coverage, which is crucial as many small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) are based in such locations.
Smaller cities are also where commuters may be found, the very ones aspiring to hybrid working in the wake of the coronavirus.
Global Workplace Analytics predicts that by the end of this year, 25% to 30% of the global workforce will be employed at home on a multiple-days-per-week basis. But, no matter where home may be, enterprise-grade broadband internet can be there too as 5G network slicing can be used to deliver business-level internet to remote workers.
How technology will change the Future of Work: Automation Innovation
GlobalData forecasts that with an ageing workforce, robots will be utilised to perform more tasks in warehouses, hospitals and retail outlets, leading to a rebalancing of work between man and machine.
What will truly drive this change is the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to make smart robots, which use machine learning to improve at tasks and automate what previously could only be done by humans. They already exist, and, as Verdict has recently highlighted, businesses are learning to love them.
This rise of smart robots has, again, been accelerated by the pandemic. A GlobalData report on COVID's impact on industrial automation last year noted that the virus has affected factory workforces worldwide. Organisations that had invested in robotics as part of an automation strategy were more likely to keep running during the crisis.
One example is packaging giant Berry Global, which faced staff shortages at its facility in the US state of Kentucky at the height of the pandemic. The solution was the deployment of almost 20 autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) to ensure production could continue 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Preventing the spread of the coronavirus also saw robotic solutions deployed in the retail sector. In the UK, multiple retailer Asda trialled robots in three stores last year that could follow a cleaning route mapped out by staff. Like giant smart Roombas, the 'co-bots' sense when physical or human obstacles are nearby, and either stop or move around them.
AI in robots is just one part of the overall picture. The intelligent tech’s powers of interpretation mean companies can handle increasingly complex information and make predictions based on that data deluge.
AI platforms are likely to transform industries through the automation of decision-making. Better decisions and lower costs of prediction mean more productivity gains for businesses. This interpretation will be the fifth mechanism through which technology will change the future of work.
How technology will change the Future of Work: Interpretation
A study from the Brookings Institute predicts that, in the US, 'routine' physical and cognitive tasks will be most at risk from automation and AI over the next decade. Jobs in office administration, production, transportation and food preparation are deemed to be vulnerable, with over 70% of their tasks potentially automated.
However, the research finds that high-risk jobs represent only one-quarter of all jobs. AI is more likely to take over specific tasks within jobs rather than displace entire occupations. And, it’s not just white-collar employees who can breathe a sigh of relief.
GlobalData notes that the more secure jobs in an AI future will range from professional and technical roles to “low-paying personal care and domestic service work characterised by non-routine, abstract activities and social and emotional intelligence.”
Automation is likely to have a greater impact on the Future of Work than COVID and the gig economy. The latter is increasingly seen as an unsustainable business model, as proven by Deliveroo’s disastrous public debut earlier this year. Major investors have expressed concerns about the company’s use of gig economy workers. Startup Starship Technologies with its food delivery robots seems more like a glimpse of the future than Deliveroo, with its low-paid contracted-out riders.
At the end of the day, money talks, and with GlobalData’s thematic research on artificial intelligence suggesting the market for AI platforms will reach $52bn in 2024, it’s clear where the Future of Work is heading.
For more details on GlobalData's 'Future of Work - Thematic Research', click here
