Perhaps the most pressing concern for humans today is the likelihood of their jobs being taken away by emerging technologies such as AI and robotics soon. However, if it can bring some solace to the human kind, a top European Commission (EU) official has opined otherwise.
"About 50% of today’s jobs could be automated by 2050. At the same time, new jobs will appear. The green transition will keep generating demand for low- and medium-skilled roles in the energy sector, with 75% of employees expected to be manual workers and technicians in 2050," said Maros Sefcovic, European commission vice-president for inter-institutional relations and foresight. He also said that post-pandemic, Europe is in shortage of labour to fill up posts created by the adoption of digital technologies.
Since the 2010s, we have witnessed significant technological advancements and consequent societal shifts. Often, we even seem to forget when we started using the Internet as it has today become a part and parcel of our daily living. We get into online transactions without a second thought and social media has become our personalized source of entertainment. Over the coming years, more and more technological advances will take place and it is fair to say that advancements in digital electronics such as powerful processors and sensors, memory capacity, and size of pixels in digital cameras have been a driving force of technological and social change, productivity, and economic growth. The progression of mobile networks from 3G, 4G, and now to 5G has brought about a total change in how we spend our time, money and interact in our communities.
The advancement in technology has helped humanity in many ways; however, it has also brought in some challenges to deal with.
Tech-safe roads
The UN’s sustainable development goals (SDGs) aim at reducing the annual rate of road deaths globally and ensuring access to safe, affordable, and sustainable transport for everyone by 2030. According to the newly launched initiative, faster progress on artificial intelligence (AI) is vital to make this happen, especially in low and middle-income countries, where the most lives are lost on the roads each year. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), approximately 1.3 million people die annually as a result of road accidents, and between 20 and 50 million more suffer non-fatal injuries, with many life-long disabilities. For instance, to address this issue, researchers from MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) and the Qatar Center for Artificial Intelligence have developed an AI model that can predict traffic patterns with high-resolution risk maps. With the use of road maps, satellite imagery and GPS traces, the risk maps can predict crashes and identify high-risk areas in great detail.
Tech-celerating education
Technology is enabling access to education to millions worldwide. The adoption of technology in the education sector is witnessing phenomenal growth. With the use of emerging technologies such as AR and VR, knowledge sharing and imparting has reached another level. Simulation and 3D printing is helping students learn and understand their subjects in a deeper way whilst shortening the knowledge gap. As a prime example, UNICAF, an online and blended learning higher education platform in Africa has provided almost $30m in scholarships to students in sub-Saharan Africa since 2012. Unicaf uses the latest technology and innovative tools to enhance instructional methods’ effectiveness and improve the student learning experience.
Enabling industries
From agriculture to heavy manufacturing and from retail to telemedicine the significance of technology has grown many folds. It has enabled safety, simplified operations, and halved the cost of doing business. Advancements in the ICT industry, combined with superfast connectivity have increased job opportunities and fostered economic growth. The internet has made distance communication not only possible but also affordable. Through automation, supply chain managers can track and monitor their products on their journey to the market drastically reducing inventory and downtime. In addition to that e-commerce and online banking, capabilities have also helped reduce the cost of doing business.
Evils of tech-celeration
However, as always, we cannot overlook the downside of this technological acceleration. We are swamped with issues that were hitherto not known to humans. We spend massive amounts of money and time and energy fighting cybersecurity issues. To take an example from recent news, the United States government has offered a reward of up to $10million (£7.4m) for information about the hacking group known as DarkSide. In May, a DarkSide ransomware attack shut down a vital 5,500 mile-long fuel pipeline on the east coast of the US. The cyber-attack caused fuel shortages after the Colonial Pipeline company shut down its operations for several days. It eventually paid the $4.4m ransom in Bitcoin. In other news, hackers broke into FBI email system and sent tens of thousands of messages warning of a possible cyberattack. This is believed to be the first known case of a seemingly malicious actor gaining access to one of those systems to send spam to a large number of people.
Keeping pace with the technological progress
5G networks will enable unimaginable services using network slicing, edge connectivity, and private networks combined with the virtualized power of the Cloud. Telcos are at the heart of this massive paradigm shift where issues of ethics of artificial intelligence, data privacy, governance in digital innovation and green digital transition cannot go unanswered.
A recent survey with 600 global executives from the VP and board level on achieving digital transformation at scale revealed that business continuity, competitive advantage, and end-to-end process automation as key pillars for leading businesses. The survey also revealed the importance of structuring data to gain positive insights to improve businesses, but 75% of most enterprises' data is unstructured and the difficulty level of turning it into standardised structured data (i.e. data that has been organized or indexed for easier referencing) is preventing companies to use them.
The Middle East has kept a steady pace with its adoption of new technologies in the market and realizing the value of digital transformation. Conversely, the telecom industry is at the heart of the developments in the future trends in the economy and promoting entrepreneurship to create opportunities and develop new business models based on knowledge and innovation. However, to create a level playing field, the support of international cooperation and comprehensive global dialogue to move towards a brighter future is a must. "It is very important for CIOs and businesses to align their IT and digital transformation strategies with the new upcoming and new age digital trends," says Waqas Ahmed, digital transformation advisor at the Ministry of Tourism of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
The telecom sector must collaborate with governments, international organizations, and individuals to establish robust communication for framing workable strategies to move forward in the digital transformation journey as different countries have their own set of policies and regulations governing their ICT infrastructure.
Ultimately, it is not only about technology, but about how human talents can work in tandem with advanced technologies to be deployed effectively across all sectors whilst preserving the environment and ensuring the sustainability of natural resources as we drive towards the future.
