Get ready: The robots are coming
NZ firms’ wait and see approach could find them struggling to keep pace
Aleading futurist is urging Kiwi companies to prepare for a tech-transformed future where machines have replaced many of today’s jobs. This might mean a robot tractor repairing a fence line, a robotic plumber fixing a toilet, artificial intelligence scanning and approving a contract or a drone delivering a coffee made by an automatic barista.
The call comes as a new report, launched today to mark the start of Techweek NZ, has revealed nearly half of all surveyed small and medium businesses in New Zealand expect to see “significant” disruption from technology within the next decade.
Yet the findings of the MYOB Future of Business Report: The Age of Change showed two-thirds were adopting a “wait-and-see approach” to change.
The company’s chief technical adviser Simon Raik-Allen said although businesses were expecting techdriven change to come quickly, it was less clear how well prepared they’ll be for it.
“Technology isn’t just about to disrupt certain industries. It is poised to change the way we perceive and interact with the world.”
“Even though the details of the disruption each business will face is — as yet — unknown, the best predictor for long-term success is the ability of a business operator to recognise the potential for change and move quickly to respond.”
According to the report, 44 per cent of local business operators believed the nature of their industry would be significantly changed by technology in the next 10 years.
Those business operators who believed their industries were most likely to be transformed by technology worked in finance and insurance (58 per cent), and the professional sector (50 per cent), were exporters (52 per cent) or part of the tourism industry (50 per cent).
The trends that business operators expected will alter their industry covered a broad range of technologies, from improvements in connectivity and cloud computing, to robotics and machine learning.
Raik-Allen said, in as short a time as five years, many businesses will face complete transformation.
“Take for example, the construction industry,” he said.
“With the latest advances in machine intelligence and 3D printing, it is an area ripe for transformation.”
“We’re already seeing modular construction begin to transform the way homes are designed and built.
“It is a short step from there to having buildings 3D printed right on site . . .”
But while operators could imagine the possibility of change, many were still struggling to keep up with technology.
Although tech threatened to disrupt industries, it also held the key to adapt to change, he said.
An earlier report produced by Raik-Allen predicted that, by 2040, we could be talking to buildings, wearing clothing that gave us superhuman skills and accessing computer files with the blink of an eye.