A recently published report from KPMG looks at the technologies and solutions that today’s enterprises are adopting or otherwise will be using to transform their companies in the next three years.
Artificial intelligence was the clear favorite, earning the number one position. It was followed by the Internet of Things and robotic process automation, both of which were tied for second place. Thereafter, cloud, drones, e-commerce platforms, and video / collaboration technologies all tied for third. Rounding out the top 10, all of which were technically tied for fourth, are 5G, blockchain, digital payment platforms, quantum computing, and robotics.
A closer look at the study’s results
According to the report, artificial intelligence allows enterprises to work faster and smarter by analyzing everything that could possibly impact the company’s bottom line. This ranges from changing customer behaviors to optimizing supply chains. Meanwhile, IoT-based devices and sensors can be used as a means for providing new, unstructured data which, it’s worth noting, can be analyzed by an artificial intelligence-based solution.
Perhaps not that surprising is the fact that video collaboration, e-commerce, cloud, 5G, and digital payments all wound up on this list. This can largely be attributed to these technologies’ sudden popularity as solutions during the pandemic to meet the needs of hybrid workforces and enabling remote customer interactions.
Video collaboration and digital payment technology, in particular, saw the greatest rise in popularity.
When enterprises were asked how, exactly, these technologies might contribute to the transformation of their company operations, leaders ranked customer loyalty and increased market share near the top. Thereafter, leaders suggested that they plan to use these new technologies as a means for creating longer-term competitive advantages such as generating new insights, greater data security, and improved energy efficiency.
Lack of talent hampering digital transformation
Prior to the pandemic, demand for tech products was already on the rise; however, today, there is a severe shortage in terms of skilled workers who know how to best use these solutions. This lack of skill was named by the survey respondents as the top factor limiting digital transformation efforts by these enterprises. Other issues limiting digital transformation includes lack of standards for new technologies, legacy IT infrastructure, and more.
Fortunately, this hurdle, if you will, serves up a tremendous opportunity for today’s solution providers. This group is now being looked at as an immediate solution to come in and not only help implement these technologies and upgrade operations, but also maintain these solutions over the long term.
"The next frontier for tech companies on their own digital transformation journeys is the data imperative—deriving real-time insights from the massive amounts of data amassed throughout the pandemic to create new growth opportunities and enhance the customer experience," said Mark Gibson, KPMG U.S. technology, media and telecom leader. "The data imperative holds true for companies across other industries as well. Technologies like AI and IoT are important pieces of the puzzle and should be underpinned by a holistic, enterprise-wide data strategy."
In short, solution providers that can deliver the technologies enterprises need to enable digital transformation, and have the means to provide guidance and insight from the data that these new technologies provide, are likely to see tremendous growth in the coming years.
The last bit worth noting from the study is that it also states that enterprises expect a 4% or greater increase in performance effectiveness in customer service, operations, cybersecurity, talent management, and other activities when they increase their investment in data by 25%.
"To achieve this, data strategy and investment must be prioritized over, or at least on par with, new technology implementations," the KPMG report concludes.
Download the KPMG study to learn more: Transforming the transformers
