Over the past decade, the pace of change in the technology sector has been incredibly rapid. In the next decade, we will see more technological progress than in the whole of the previous 100 years combined, as technology reshapes industries and almost every aspect of our lives. These developments have also had a knock-on effect on various aspects of our lives, becoming a catalyst for further rapid changes. As a result, most organizations have been hit by disruption and forced to redefine their value propositions in the market. The main challenge lies in determining which trends are the most significant to the business. Understanding the impact that these trends will have on organizations, industries, and people could be critical in staying ahead of disruption.

The most successful organizations are the ones able to accurately predict the future of their industry and develop a vision of their place in that future. This is especially true in an era when increasingly affordable technology innovations are making it possible for businesses to compete on a nearly level playing field with large corporations. It can be difficult to gain a clear understanding not only of the trends affecting the business but also the most effective ways to address them, however, because both technology and business are evolving at an unprecedented rate. Recognizing that these trends exist is only the first step in tackling them. Business owners must then carefully consider how these trends will affect their company and how they can get ahead of the curve in order to take advantage of the opportunities that these trends present. A company's ability to withstand the inevitable onslaught of competition and disruption will be determined by its ability to project into the future and think strategically about change. A company's ability to identify and pursue the most promising opportunities is also essential to positioning the company for long-term growth success.

Emerging Technologies and Breakthrough Solutions

The rapid development of technology has paved the way for the constant development of new breakthrough solutions. In the current business landscape, technology-based solutions are enabling significant optimization of processes and operations, while reducing the reliance on manual activities and people costs. Organizations are able to meet the needs of their customers, anywhere, at any time, scaling meaningful and hyper-personalized interactions at a fraction of the cost. Beyond the impacts of value creation and delivery in business, emerging technologies are triggering the development of solutions that are transcending the traditional boundaries of human–machine interactions.

For example, researchers at the University of Plymouth in the United Kingdom are exploring the development of brain–computer interfaces using quantum programming. By utilizing electroencephalogram (EEG) readers, which detect electrical activity passing through the human scalp, researchers are able to track the changing brain patterns, which are then used to manipulate simulated qubits—the fundamental unit of quantum computing that reflects the mathematics of quantum physics—with nothing more than the power of thought. This marks the beginning of the construction of what the team refers to as the Quantum Brain Network (abbreviated to QBraiN). A brain–computer interface (BCI) refers to a method of controlling a computer by using brain signals. When it comes to manual input devices, the brain is technically in charge of controlling them—albeit through an intermediary such as the fingers or the voice—but a BCI makes it possible to send commands to the outside world without having to go through the process of sending commands from the brain to peripheral nerves or muscles first.

Breakthrough technologies such as QBraiN could completely change the way people engage and interact with one another, and with products or devices in the physical environment. Considering that the global voice recognition market size was forecast to grow from $10.7 billion in 2020 to $27.16 billion by 2026 (Vailshery 2022), there is already a shift in how consumers interact with brands online. Products, services, devices, and machines developed in the future will need to consider not only screenless and voice-activated capabilities, but also perhaps BCI interactivity.

Emerging technologies will continue to have a significant impact on the way we live, work, and interact with one another in a world dominated by digital solutions and innovations. Many of these technological advancements are beneficial to us—they increase our productivity, make the services we require more accessible, and generally improve the quality of our lives. Breakthrough solutions are being discovered so frequently that it can be challenging for companies to keep up. Success in staying on top of technology trends is measured in terms of fewer missed opportunities for businesses of any size. In Chapter 8 we will explore several top disruptive technologies and their impact for the business world.

Evolving Consumer Behavior

During the global pandemic lockdown in 2020, my daughter, a young Gen Zer, discovered TikTok, a video-focused social networking platform. Like most children born in her generation, she is a digital native and quickly learned the nuances of using the platform—recording creative videos on my phone, editing, posting, and even promoting videos for views. Over the next few months, she built her expertise on the site and grew her following to over 10,000 people worldwide. Soon she discovered the art of making slime, a non-toxic viscous toy product that is serious business online. For example, YouTube slime creators have gained celebrity status, with some acquiring hundreds of thousands of online followers. Building on this discovery, my daughter took her passion for slime to the next level by creating a recipe for the product through YouTube instructional videos, trial and error, and crowdsourced tips from her online followers. After perfecting the product recipe, she set up a simple e-commerce site to sell the products and has to date received requests from people all over the world.

In addition, my 10-year-old (at the time) uses online and digital technologies to engage and interact in the most natural way. She chats with friends over Snapchat, a multimedia instant messaging app, or meets them for a game on Roblox, a multiplayer online gaming platform. She is developing her passion for acting and drama by attending online classes at a professional academy located in Toronto, Canada, with a group of other talented kids.

Suffice to say, my daughter and her generation of children are growing up in a very different world from the one that many of us have known as children. Immersed in the digital world, this new generation of technology-savvy consumers will communicate, interact, engage, and consume in a very different way from past generations of people. In less than a decade, my daughter will be an adult and, I have to wonder, how will organizations built in my generation and the generations before me expect to serve this new digital-first generation of consumers?

Digitally enabled businesses have triggered a shift in consumer behaviors and expectations. Companies such as Amazon, Uber, Meta (formerly Facebook), Netflix, and many others have leveraged technology to create a new level of interaction and engagement with the global customer base. As digital natives, these companies are able to create superior customer experiences that are hyper-personalized, frictionless, flexible, and predictive.

Online and digital platforms offer personalized experiences for each individual customer. By leveraging digital technologies, these platforms not only cater to preferences and interests of individuals, but also gather insights based on their interactions and activities on the platform to further customize the experience. Leveraging technology also allows these hyper-personalized experiences to be offered at global scale but at a fraction of the cost.

Digitally enabled businesses have also transformed the customer journey. In the past, acquisition at the point of sale was a critical part of the customer journey. Here, dominant players in financial services dictated the type and speed of services that could be made available to consumers, merchants, and retailers, who were at their mercy. Today, the acquisition step has been moved to the background, while the digital customer journey focuses on creating impactful experiences. For example, when requesting services from ride-sharing app Uber, a majority of the customer journey focuses on the ease of use of the app, speed of arrival, interaction with the driver, as well as the experience in the car itself. The actual payment step takes place in the background, and goes almost unnoticed by the users. The same applies to Amazon's One Click Buy, or Netflix's subscription payments charged automatically each month. With artificial intelligence, machine learning, and predictive analytics, as well as access to extensive user data, digital businesses such as Amazon and Netflix are able to offer predictive capabilities that recommend the right product, service, and content at the right time to the individual customers.

Over the past decade, technology has triggered a change in consumer behavior. We've adopted technology almost as quickly as it's being developed. And we've become accustomed to interacting with digitally enabled businesses in a new way that has given us meaningful experiences.

Today, we have become accustomed to this hyper-personalized environment where we can get predictive interactions with companies that accurately tell us what they think we should have, as well as frictionless interactions across channels and flexibility across the entire customer journey. This has made us accustomed to these meaningful interactions, or interactions that we deem meaningful, and we're demanding the same level of interaction from all types of business, including traditional incumbent companies.

The coronavirus pandemic accelerated the adoption of digital channels across a wide range of industries and countries. In the midst of physical lockdowns, new adopters had little choice but to embrace digital channels. The number of global internet users reached 4.95 billion in early 2022, with internet penetration now standing at 62.5% of the world's total population. More than two-thirds (67.1%) of the world's population now use a mobile phone, with unique users reaching 5.31 billion by the start of 2022, and there are 4.62 billion social media users around the world as of January 2022. On average, we spent about 42% of our waking hours online, and this amounts to about two days of our week. So we are demanding more meaningful experiences because we are spending more time in these digital environments.

In this crowded digital environment, companies have really struggled to stand out. The future of consumer engagement truly lies in creating experiences that have meaning for the consumer themselves. Progressive companies should focus on moving these repetitive actions and interactions on these digital channels to the background through automation, and focus on leveraging emerging technologies to create experiences that consumers find valuable and meaningful.

Shifting Competitive Landscape

About 10 to 15 years ago, it was relatively easy for organizations and brands to determine their competitors in the global business landscape. In general, competition was direct in the business world, as key players mostly knew each other and the competitive landscape remained within industry boundaries. The current competitive landscape is far more complex and diluted. Competition can come from anywhere, crossing industry and regional boundaries with ease. The size of an organization and the length of time it has been in business no longer carry significance. Companies that have mastered digital technologies and online channels move rapidly and with purpose. In today's digital and global world, indirect and substitute competition are more significant.

Initially, these new players did not concern incumbent organizations. However, digital businesses have become hard to ignore as they rapidly reach their size, scale, and enviable commercial success. Not too long ago, it took years—in some cases nearly a century—for companies to achieve the coveted $1 billion valuation. Start-ups of today may find it hard to relate to this, gaining access to a global consumer marketplace on day one of business by leveraging digital technologies and online channels. As mentioned, YouTube reached the $1 billion valuation mark a year after its founding, while Instagram and Twitter needed less than three years. In comparison, well-known brands such as Starbucks and Nike achieved this mark in 24 years, and luxury brand Prada reached this milestone 98 years after the company was founded in 1913.

Digitally enabled companies are also demonstrating resilience, further proving that the global competitive landscape has shifted. In the midst of unprecedented global disruption, companies built for the digital age have actually grown by an incredible 42% and increased in value by $2.1 trillion with a growth rate that is 4.5 times the average growth rate for the Global Top 100 over the past 15 years (Kantar BrandZ 2021). This accelerated growth was a testament to the relationship between brands and technology. The global pandemic impacted brands regardless of size or geography, but companies leveraging technology to engage and create a point of difference in the market have proven their resilience. The digital global business landscape is also driving increased collaboration between competitors. “Coopetition”—joint ventures, outsourcing agreements, product licensing, cooperative research—is creating mutual strength for collaborators. In the current competitive landscape, companies need more than investments to penetrate and capture new markets.

Rise of the Low-Touch Economy

The coronavirus pandemic served as a shock to the global society. For example, we saw consumption patterns transform and shift as people moved away from purchasing non-essential goods towards essential goods. And consumers also abandoned brand loyalty as they started to purchase more products that were simply available to them, at low cost, during the height of the pandemic. Consumers were also forced to adopt digital channels as physical channels went into lockdown. This new environment triggered the rise of the low-touch economy—a business landscape characterized by no or minimum physical contact.

This scale of change and the speed at which it happened created a once-in-a-generation shift for most organizations. Companies accelerated digitization of customer interactions, such as e-commerce, online acquisition, and touchpoints, by up to three to four years (McKinsey 2020). The share of digitally enabled products in business portfolios has also accelerated up to seven years, offering existing products and services on digital channels, as well as creating new ones specifically designed for the digital economy. These initiatives were meant to address the surge in demand that came in through the digital channels. While it was a blessing for business continuity, organizations still struggled to deliver on the surge in digital demands through physical back-end operations and capabilities.

In the next wave of uncertainty, the low-touch economy will continue to grow and shift, demonstrating that innovation and creativity are the foundation of resilience: humans and the world will always find a way to shine through. In Chapter 2, we will delve into the development of digital business transformation over time and critical elements that influence their success in companies.