Technology

New Avanade research shows that the majority of business leaders are already investing in, and benefiting from, the increased use of smart technologies in the workplace. Increased revenue is a major driver of their adoption, with business and IT leaders expecting up to a 33 percent rise in revenue from smart technologies over the next five years.

Additionally, businesses anticipate retraining current employees, creating new roles and reorganizing their structure as up to 20 percent of existing roles are repurposed.

Smart technologies refer to technologies — such as connected devices, wearables and intelligent automation — that allow computers or machines to do work or make decisions traditionally done by humans.

Highlights include:

63 percent of companies are already experiencing key benefits from their smart technology investments, including increased revenue, improved customer experience and higher employee satisfaction.

92 percent believe that it will be easier for organizations to attract and retain top talent as they increase their reliance on smart technologies. [Click to Tweet]

73 percent said that they will require more skills in the areas of problem solving (61 percent), the ability to gather and analyze data (59 percent), critical thinking (51 percent) and collaboration (51 percent) as they blend smart technologies with humans.

60 percent believe smart technologies will play a key role in supporting the customer experience; identifying sales leads (60 percent) and at-risk customers (49 percent).

78 percent believe that their organization has not given enough thought to the workplace ethical dilemmas created by the increased use of smart technologies. [Click to Tweet]

While the benefits of smart technology adoption are clear and compelling, C-level executives in particular are grappling with ethical issues stemming from the use of smart technologies. Seventy-eight percent of business and IT leaders believe that their organization has not given enough thought to the workplace ethical dilemmas created by the increased use of smart technologies. Intentions are clear, however, with a majority targeting up to 10 percent of their IT budget at this area in the next five years.

“While the adoption of smart technologies may seem threatening to some, the reality is that successful organizations are already realizing business results and planning their next round of investments in this area,” said Ashish Kumar, Avanade’s Chief Growth Officer and Digital Lead. “We believe that smart technologies can actually increase the humanity of a digital workplace and help organizations attract and retain the critical talent they need for the future.”

Find out more about Avanade’s perspective on today’s digital workplace as well as the full survey results at www.avanade.com/smarttech.