Читать книгу Business Trends in Practice - Бернард Марр, Bernard Marr - Страница 18

What makes this fourth industrial revolution different from the previous three is the sheer range of new technologies involved. Where each of the previous industrial revolutions were driven by one major technological advancement, the fourth industrial revolution is driven by numerous tech trends, including the increasing datafication of our world, huge leaps in artificial intelligence, the rise of cyber-physical systems (computer systems that control physical processes), and the vast spread of the Internet of Things, to name just a few examples. Each of these advancements on their own would be transformative; together, they can take us beyond anything we could imagine.

What's interesting about the fourth industrial revolution is that the unprecedented digital transformation that we've seen in recent years is being accelerated by the interaction between all these different technologies. The enormous leaps in AI, for example, have been made possible by the explosion of data, which in turn is being accelerated by the plethora of smart devices constantly generating data. These trends are influencing each other, and will continue to do so. This means, rather than the big step changes of previous industrial revolutions, this latest revolution may usher in a period of exponential growth that just carries on and on. In other words, there may not be a fifth industrial revolution; we may instead experience a continual acceleration of the fourth industrial revolution.

“Exponential growth” is a phrase you probably hear a lot, but let's take a moment to consider what it means in real terms. When I talk about the amount of data in our world growing exponentially, and the exponential growth in computing power, I'm talking about it doubling every few years – two years in the case of computing power (as per Moore's Law, which I'll talk about later), and roughly every four years for the amount of data being stored.¹

Imagine if the speed of cars developed at such a pace. Initially, the progress would seem fairly sensible, starting with 50mph then doubling two years later to 100mph. But after eight years our cars would be traveling faster than the speed of sound (767 mph). Within 50 years, we'd be driving faster than the speed of light (670 million mph). That's fast enough to take a round-trip from Earth to the Moon and back in about 2.5 seconds. Clearly, such pace of change isn't happening in the automotive industry, or other industries for that matter. And that's what makes the pace of digital change so startling. It's something we've never seen before, and it's almost impossible to imagine this pace continuing. But that's precisely what may happen. There's no limit to what these technologies can achieve.

Crucially, these tech trends, which are all mingling and mixing together, will disrupt every industry, every organization (big and small), and even many aspects of society. This is why business leaders need to understand these trends and plan for their potential impact. In this chapter, I outline 10 technology mega-trends that will separate the successful businesses of the future from those that get left behind. Each of these trends deserves a book in its own right (indeed, I've written entire books on many of these trends). So consider this a whistle-stop tour – something to get you thinking about the future of your organization, and specifically how your business might use these trends to drive success.