AI IS BUZZWORD IN REALM OF TECHNOLOGY

Accenture Technology Vision 2018 report notes five trends that businesses are looking into in the coming years

Many fear losing jobs as artificial intelligence advances, but as Accenture Philipines digital lead JP Palpallatoc explains, reskilling and upskilling workers and students will allow for human and machine collaboration.

In a presentation of Accenture’s Technology Vision 2018 report, Palpallatoc said that rather than focusing on the elimination of jobs, they want to focus on the opportunities to improve and create more jobs by allowing stakeholders to work alongside machines.

He admitted that low-skilled jobs might be at risk but said those with medium and high skill levels can complement artificial intelligence.

Palpallatoc said that Accenture is working with the IT and Business Process Association of the Philippines (IBPAP), government and academe to upgrade the skills of Filipino workers and allow them to work along- side intelligent machines. He cited that among their initiatives is the Hour of Code, which teaches computer coding and lets college teams compete and present their output.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is among five global technology trends identified in the Technology Vision 2018 report that companies need to take note of to adapt to a digital age.

The Tech Vision report is an annual study of senior level execs that tracks technology trends in companies. This year, they surveyed 6,300 executives from 25 countries in different industries from November to January.

The report found 84 percent of respondents saying technology will be used to help their companies become embedded into the fabric of how people live today and that These trends are expected to disrupt the way companies operate in the next three years.

The rapid advance in technology enable companies to change the way people work and live and change a company’s relationship with customers and business partners.

The report notes that people are not just end-users of a company’s products and services. They are also feeding information and access back to them.

The other trends identified in the report are extended reality, data veracity, frictionless business and internet-of-thinking.

Extended reality is using virtual and augmented reality to remove the distance to people, information and experiences to transform the ways people live and work. Data veracity is ensuring data is accurate before making important decisions. Frictionless business means redesigning systems to support partnerships at scale while Internet of thinking is creating intelligent distributed systems to make use of this technology.

With most of the registered companies in the country classified under the small and medium category, Palpallatoc believes they can have a significant impact, as almost everyone else, even the big ones, are just starting to adopt them.

He added that smaller companies don’t have the baggage of legacy systems and are able to be flexible.

He also said they need not be intimidated with new technology but should be responsible enough to be aware of it and use it to their advantage. /