Tag: 4th Industrial Revolution (4IR)

It MIGHT be trite, but the world is a very different place to what it was three years ago before the advent of the...

Dive into the captivating world of ownership, technology, and crypto as Maverick451, the book-publishing arm of Daily Maverick, introduces its latest publication, It’s Mine: How the Crypto Industry is Redefining Ownership, penned by the renowned author and blockchain authority Steven Sidley.

Holograms and virtual reality (VR) have long been a feature of the supposed 4th Industrial Revolution (4IR). When President Cyril Ramaphosa opened the first 4IR SA summit in 2019, his address was live-streamed as a hologram to the Rustenburg Civic Centre.

The modern world is flush with technology jargon, and new ones keep entering our lexicon: digital transformation, the 4th Industrial Revolution (4IR), and Generative Artificial Intelligence are just a few examples. And as often happens with overused words and phrases, we become very comfortable with these to the point that they soon become a part of the background noise.

The era of emerging technologies is changing everything in our lives. It’s changing the jobs landscape and how we work, but also how we interact with one another, how we are entertained, and how we learn. At the same time, businesses face changing customer expectations, and governments must contend with new demands from their citizenry.

While digital transformation may seem like an overwhelming exercise for enterprises with a large investment in legacy infrastructure, the reality is that it has become imperative. The longer businesses delay, the further behind they will fall when it comes to their ability to innovate and be agile in the face of change.

Zimbabwe and South Africa share a common destiny to electricity supply Armageddon. Both Southern African neighbours and traditional trade partners are currently reeling from unprecedented power shortages, with the scourge looking like it is not dissipating any time soon.

The 4th Industrial Revolution (4IR), driven by the rapid pace of disruptive innovation and exponential technological breakthroughs, has changed the way we live, work and interact with each other. It is characterised by unprecedented processing power, storage, access to knowledge and the blurring of lines between physical, digital, and biological space.

In the second part of this two-part series, I outline the skills that will be required by present-day HR professionals – for now and into the future. The future of work will place an extraordinary demand on HR professionals to lead their organisations strategically through this disruptive period.

According to the World Economic Forum, artificial intelligence (AI) can contribute up to USD 15.7 trillion to the global economy by 2030. However, in Africa, AI market growth has stagnated. Estimated at USD 870 million in 2021, with marginal growth forecasted until 2024.