How Transformational Technologies Can Pave The Way for Disruptive Enterprises?

Viable and scalable innovation, is the biggest advantage of an enterprise, in the current highly-competitive environment that exists, to thrive in. In most of the cases, traditionally, the advantage used to be a technical upgradation of an existing product or services or a new product developed based on an upcoming technology that can withstand the test of scales.

However, that approach of having an edge is almost gone – technology today is so very integral into business functions, that there is barely any scope to show it as an innovation, gone are the days, when its mere introduction was termed as innovation! In fact, nowadays, enterprises have gone or should say have to take a step ahead and give their customers choices of products and services as per their needs-customisation- contextual analytical era to ensure their stickiness and demand , relevance.

Infact, the world is headed to, where enterprises are geared to offer tailor-made and trustworthy, custom -designed solutions and services, keeping in mind personal preferences.

The key technologies to help in transforming this, to reality are Artificial Intelligence (AI), Blockchain, and the Internet of Things (IoT) – the triumvirate will work together to ensure the authenticity of data, validate identities and empower secure multi-party transactions, and thereby, play a key role in automating and wining customers trust.

IoT And AI Lead In India

Among the technologies that are likely to disrupt Indian enterprises; IoT and AI certainly are the front runners. AI is already deep-rooted in businesses- in use in several fields, such as education, media, banking, fintech, consumer-facing services, adtech …to mention a few. It receives one of the largest shares of investment and the start-up ecosystem is one of its biggest champions. Subsets of AI, such as machine learning (ML), natural language processing (NLP) are used heavily in analytics that form the basis of Big Data.

IoT, on the other hand, is the basis if we are to refer,  Indian Premier Narendra Modi’s announcement of smart cities, railways, villages – essentially more digital and connected. It will be important also talk in context to the contagious Covid-19 pandemic, that we are living in- the ‘new normal’, as its widely referred- IoT for sure gains significance as it comes with add on offerings that can be an enabler of social distancing such as, the facilitation of telemedicine-remote patient monitoring.

Better business efficiency, screening- thereby increased profitability through reduction in cost of processes are some of the benefits of IoT, and hence increasingly being talked and adopted as a line of business, for an additional revenue stream by many small and medium enterprises too.

According to KPMG, by 2021, the global spending on IoT will reach $ 1.1 Tn while cognitive and AI systems will attract $52.2 Bn. The same report states that IoT is likely to drive 8% of business transformation in India, while AI is likely to drive 15%.

Investment in augmenting business experience by leveraging these two technological advancements, may not really be a concern as none of these are meant for immediate revenue generation only – IoT and AI are stepping stones that will only enable an enterprise to become future-ready.

The other member of the trio, blockchain, is also a rapidly growing business offering in India. However, data and cyber security are still, work in progress in this case, which makes the uptake of blockchain, presently tricky.

Benefits Of Transformational Technologies

Winning consumers’ trust in an ethical manner is the biggest challenge in the world of glitzy advertisement – digital social media offerings and packaged PR. The transformational technologies ensure the enterprises, irrespective of the industry, win the trust of their customers and patrons.

While AI is marketed as a panacea to heighten customer experience; IoT and blockchain together can create an undisputable supply chain that ensures buyers get an authentic and undamaged product. Besides, these technologies help verify whether a product containing hazardous materials, has been disposed of rightly and safely.

Trusted, data-driven business models will play a crucial role in developing new products or in the marketing of existing ones. Automation of transaction data helps AI models to forecast markets and consumer tastes, thereby facilitating new businesses, viable.

With decentralized identities, powered and validated by blockchain and AI, consumers can be empowered to select which aspects of their identity, to share with whom. This will also enhance services and experiences by winning consumers’ trust. The transformational technologies are also able to make collaborative R&D a less-hassled work – blockchain and AI can track and analyse each party’s contribution and its value to the intellectual property and product.

With all the variants and edges, offered by transformational technologies, and the promise of better marketability, customer engagement, quality and sustainability in business practices, it’s time to witness more disruptive enterprises on the horizon, more so with ‘new normal’!

Note: We at Inc42 take our ethics very seriously. More information about it can be found here.