In its annual global technology trends report, Accenture, a leading global professional services company, providing a broad range of services and solutions in strategy, consulting, digital, technology and operations for clients, has identified five technology trends that are critical to digital success, and found that leading organizations that develop a ‘people first' approach will win in today's digital economy. As technology advancements accelerate at an unprecedented rate - dramatically disrupting the workforce – organizations in the Middle East that equip employees, partners and consumers with new skills can fully capitalize on innovations. Those that do will have unmatched capabilities to create fresh ideas, develop cutting-edge products and services, and disrupt the status quo. The ‘People First' theme plays out in each of the five trends that make up this year's Accenture Technology Vision 2016: Intelligent Automation, Liquid Workforce, Platform Economy, Predictable Disruption and Digital Trust. Mike Sutcliff, group chief executive of Accenture Digital, said: "Our latest research has determined that digital success is based on five major technology trends, which are shaping the current and future business landscape in KSA. Results show that if companies embrace digital, while also harnessing the power of people, they will be well-set to rise to their industry's fore in the coming years." In a companion survey of more than 3,100 business and IT executives worldwide, Accenture found that 33 percent of the global economy is already impacted by digital. To supplement this report, Accenture interviewed more than 300 senior decision-makers in the public and private sectors of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) and Qatar, and found that close to 80 percent of KSA respondents are confident that the pace of technology will increase rapidly and at an unprecedented rate over the next three years, with a 52 percent expectation that the level of data growth in the coming year will at least double, and 24 percent believing it will as much as triple. The Accenture report highlights how companies in the Middle East can often feel overwhelmed by the pace of technology change, experiencing a "digital culture shock" at the prospect of keeping up with the competition. Some additional findings from the UAE survey: Intelligent automation. Leaders are embracing automation - powered by artificial intelligence (AI), robotics and augmented reality – to fundamentally change the way their business operates and drive a new, more productive relationship between people and machines. Extensive automation strategies are already being implemented throughout KSA businesses, particularly with regards to customer-facing processes such as interacting and servicing tasks, and consumer experiences, and organizations are expected to extensively increase their use of automation in the coming years. KSA businesses claim this anticipated growth is driven by a desire to cut costs and increase operational efficiency (31 percent), boost innovation and create new business models (28 percent), and redirect resources to concentrate on research and development, and new product development (40 percent). Investment in artificial intelligence (A.I) has grown significantly, over 70 percent, in KSA in comparison to two years ago, and is expected to grow in the next 3 years, with companies anticipating to invest upwards of 73 percent more in fields such as machine learning, deep learning, natural language processing, video analytics, and embedded A.I solutions. Liquid workforce. By exploiting technology to enable workforce transformation, leading companies will create highly adaptable and change-ready environments that are able to meet today's dynamic digital demands. The competitive advantage offered by a liquid workforce is apparent as survey respondents indicated that "deep expertise for the specialized task at hand" was only the fifth-most-important characteristic they required for employees to perform well in a digital work environment. Other qualities such as the ‘ability to shift gears› or ‘work differently with minimal notice' were considered by 66 percent of KSA respondents as the most important characteristics for employees to perform well in the digital work environment. Moreover, two thirds of KSA respondents (63 percent) believe a more fluid or transparent workforce will improve innovation. Platform economy. Industry leaders are unleashing the power of technology by developing platform-based business models to capture new growth opportunities, driving the most profound change in the global macroeconomic environment since the Industrial Revolution. According to the study, 58 percent of KSA organizations are investing in digital technologies in select business units, while 16 percent are comprehensively investing in digital technologies. — SG
