By Rajiv Bhalla – Vice President & Managing Director, Barco India
As Covid clouds recede, and the economies get into restart mode, 2022 promises to be yet another Reset Year, when we take a closer look at the digital transformations initiatives that helped ensure continuity in difficult times. The products, solutions, and trends that survive the scrutiny will set the template for the rest of the decade. Enterprises are looking for results this year. The blockbuster technologies of today ABCD or Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain, Cloud, and Data have already proven their efficacy. The months ahead will be marked by hyper-connectivity, seamless networking, intensive manufacturing, R&D, sustainability and hyper-personalization. Some broad trends that will boost the enterprise eco-system in 2022 are:
Demand for AI to increase
Artificial Intelligence use cases have been seen in image and speech recognition, navigation apps, smartphone personal assistants, ride-sharing apps, and so on. AI needs a lot of data and computation power. AI will be used further to analyze interactions, to determine connections and insights, to help predict demand, and to detect the changing patterns in consumer behaviour by analyzing data in real-time. The AI market will grow to a $190 billion industry by 2025 with global spending on cognitive and AI systems reaching over $57 billion in 2022.
Cloud will build resilience
Cloud is helping companies innovate, scale, grow and reimagine. End-users need tools that help them design more resilient systems, and cloud providers need to make it less expensive to operate across multiple regions and availability zones. Companies will exchange on-premises systems for cloud systems that will setback-proof the future. Companies that are still not in the cloud will need to make the transition fast, to enhance flexibility and scalability in the post-Covid business environment. Cloud developers may adopt a solution as a service (SolaaS) approach and free the customer from high start-up costs.
Flexible and adaptive organizations
According to Gartner, enterprises that employ “business composability” will be more likely to succeed. Business composability is “the mindset, technologies, and a set of operating capabilities that enable organizations to innovate and adapt quickly to changing business needs.” Gartner is promoting the concept of business composability as the way for businesses to thrive through disruption in 2022 and beyond. Organizations with high composability will report superior business performance. They will be able to pursue new value streams through technology, as they will have the ability to be dynamic in thinking.
The future of work is hybrid
As per Enterprise Technology Research, the idea of hybrid work has taken deep roots and will overtake fully remote as the dominant work model in 2022. As per the study, only one-third of workers will be back in the office full-time by year-end 2022 and well over 60% will work in some type of remote configuration. Fully remote workers will settle in at just below 30%, which is still significantly higher than the historical average of about 16%. In 2022, companies will focus on getting hybrid right and the dominant model for workers will be a combination of remote and in-office presence.
Metaverse
Metaverse is a collection of shared online worlds in which physical, augmented, and virtual realities converge. While many virtual worlds exist online, users currently can’t move between them. Metaverse turns disparate online worlds into a single, seamless entity. It can be used in training, entertainment, education, and marketing. IT services firm Tech Mahindra recently announced the launch of TechMVerse, its Metaverse practice, which will allow its customers to create immersive experiences and transact in the Metaverse. Other IT biggies like Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys, HCL Technologies, Wipro, Persistent Systems and Mphasis also have big plans in this area.
Digital costs management strategies
In 2022, companies will be looking for ways to identify waste and manage costs. Technology disruption is requiring many companies to transform their business, and they are grappling with how to become cost-efficient. Big vendors will need the new ideas provided by startups, venture capitalists will need returns and smaller deals could be easier to push through.
Security concerns to rise
Security concerns — especially the threat of ransomware — dominated 2021. About 76% of Indian enterprises were hit by at least one ransomware. As the use of digital tools increases, so does the amount of data created. The World Bank estimates that by 2022, annual total internet traffic will increase by about 50% from 2020 levels, reaching 4.8 zettabytes. As software supply chains increase, data breaches can have a cascading effect and may affect many companies in one go. This multidimensional problem will require action from vendors, governments and end-users too as the stakes grow over time.
Tech is seeping into everything, and enterprises will be looking for results in 2022. Over the last two years, we have seen one of the greatest switches to digital. Organisations of the future will prioritize cloud, data and automation to boost greater efficiencies.
