‘People-first’ technology on the rise

Technology for the people, by the people.”

No, it’s not a reworked line from Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, but the theme of Accenture’s 2017 Technology Vision (Tech Vision) report, the company’s “annual prediction of technology trends that will shape the future of companies in the next three years.”

“In 2017, we’re seeing that technology is really being shaped by people, for people,” says JP Palpallatoc, Accenture digital group lead of the Philippines delivery center.

Basically, the theme is a “call to action for business and technology leaders to actively design and direct technology to augment and amplify human capabilities.”

To help companies respond to this call, Tech Vision lists down five emerging technology trends that companies should take note of to succeed in today’s digital economy:

•AI (artificial intelligence) is the new UI (user interface);

• ecosystems as macrocosms;

• workforce marketplace

• design for humans;

• the uncharted.

“AI is getting simpler, making the interaction with customers and employees more intuitive,” Palpallatoc says of the first trend, citing the Amazon Alexa, the “virtual assistant” created by the company.

For companies, AI could become their “spokesperson,” says Palpallatoc, citing how chat bots have already started taking on this role when it comes to customer service.

“As more people interact with AI, we’re going to see how they could eventually represent brands and be the digital spokesperson,” he says.

The second trend, Palpallatoc continues, is all about companies building an ecosystem of partners that will allow them to diversify their operations—like how General Motors invested $500 million in ride-hailing startup Lyft Inc. with plans of creating a network self-driving cars.

“When we surveyed executives, 75 percent said that their competitive advantage does not solely rely on their strengths, but on the strengths of their partners and their ecosystem,” says Palpallatoc. “They can even have multiple ecosystems, so they need to create a strategy to know which partners, which ecosystem they can work with.”

The next Tech Vision trend, according to Palpallatoc, is something that is “very relevant” to the country: workforce marketplace. With the rise of on-demand labor platforms such as freelancer.com and raket.ph, companies are given the opportunity to have a healthy talent mix by tapping into these external sources, aside from their direct hires. “A very good example of this would be Procter & Gamble, which is experimenting by mixing borrowed resources from external talent marketplaces with their own internal recruits,” he says. “And the results have been very positive: projects have been developed with higher quality and faster pace. So companies need to redesign their contracts with people, to provide jobs that will allow [employees] to pursue their passions.”

Closely related to the first trend is the fourth, which is designing technology for humans.

This entails understanding human behavior, says Palpallatoc, with the help of data analytics, which could be gathered using AI.

“Every application, customer interaction generates data, [which allows one] to see people’s preferences, wants, needs. These can be used to tailor technology according to one’s behavior,” he adds.

Lastly, Palpallatoc emphasizes that companies should also keep in mind “the uncharted”—inventing new industries and new technology standards. “Sixty-eight percent of the executives which we surveyed said regulations, especially in the area of technology, had not kept pace with the changes,” he says. “Here in the Philippines, the most relevant experience we’ve had was the entry of Uber and Grab. So we’re seeing that technology leaders have also become pioneers, redefining standards in different industries.”