Navigating A Smart Ecosystem In An Age Of Digital Disruption

The race is on...IR 4.0 will bring about a technological revolution of great magnitude and one that is happening at a much faster pace.

The Fourth Industrial Revolution is fundamentally different from the previous three, which were characterised mainly by advances in technology. The key outputs of IR 4.0 is the ability of technology to think and make smart decisions in real-time. All this is facilitated by the invisible advances in communication and connectivity. IR 4.0 will connect people and objects to each other, drastically improving the efficiency of businesses and individuals, resulting in a smart ecosystem. IR 4.0 will change how we live, work, and communicate; it will also change the things we value and the way we value them in the future.

This is certainly a REVOLUTION as it will be extremely disruptive and will impact us in various ways. Already we see changing business models and employment trends. According to

The World Economic Forum, an estimated 65% of primary education students will end up working in jobs that haven’t even been created yet.

All connected... Everything will become integrated into the environment; there will be natural ways of controlling things through voice, gesture, emotion, touches, and they will anticipate our needs and enhance our lives.

Components Of A Smart Ecosystem

Autonomous Automation, Machine Learning, and Artificial Intelligence are the key enablers of IR 4.0. It leverages both the physical and digital world to increase capability and efficiency. Furthermore, it leverages the internet as a key medium for sharing and collecting information, as well as driving distributed, intelligent decisions back to physical processes.

IR 3.0 focused on automation and simplification of processes thanks to digital technology. However, the overall control of the process was still heavily centralised and human-driven. IR 4.0 instead, focuses on equipment/ technologies that can interact together and make real-time, expert and aware, decisions.

Those equipment/technologies integrated and working together have given life to a distributed and technologydriven SMART ECOSYSTEM. All components of this ecosystem will be able to communicate and exchange relevant information with each other and with humans, without the need for a centralised or human intervention.

Since all components of the ecosystem are designed to be integrated, this will force a shift from the ‘one size fits all’ mentality to extremely personalised scenarios, in which customers will have greater control over the final product. Undoubtedly, our devices and sensors have become an extension of ourselves.

Social media such as Facebook, our smartphones and even smartwatches are extensions of who we are as an individual and what we do. Everything gets integrated, customised and smartautomated.

An ecosystem of computing will surround us, becoming so natural it will disappear into the background. Less intrusive, it will fit into more parts of our world and solve more problems. User interfaces will become integrated and we will control them with voice, gaze, and gesture. We will see the results, not the effort.

“We stand on the brink of a technological revolution that will fundamentally alter the way we live, work, and relate to one another. In its scale, scope, and complexity, the transformation will be unlike anything humankind has experienced before.” Klaus Schwab, President of the World Economic Forum, The Fourth Industrial Revolution.

In this together... Components of a smart ecosystem will be able to communicate and exchange relevant information with each other and with humans, without the need for a centralised or human intervention.

A New Playing Field

Our current model and the new model are not fluently integrating with each other, and yes, there will be casualties along the way – those who are being disrupted by the dynamics of the new world and those who lack the ability to adapt and adjust. IR 4.0 is disrupting nations and the notion of being national is getting a different meaning.

Of course, ethical questions, similar to the debates around the use of atomic energy and genetic research, will need to be answered as this connected super-intelligent world evolves, and new playing rules will need to reflect those questions.

“The best technologies are the ones that you stop noticing” – Chris Thorn, British Heart Foundation.

Everything will become integrated into the environment; there will be natural ways of controlling things through voice, gesture, emotion, touches, and they will anticipate our needs and enhance our lives.

The tipping point...IR 4.0 will bring about a technology revolution of great magnitude and one that is happening at a much faster pace. It is incumbent on us to understand and leverage it’s monumental impact and widespread benefits, while confronting it’s serious challenges.

Phil Captain is an Executive Business Coach to C-level executives, Business Owners, Start-ups & Professional Service Providers in USA, South America and Asia Pacific.