Tag: robotics

Following the endless stream of COVID-19 headlines, extended lockdowns and associated economic hardships, we are all suffering from Armageddon fatigue. It is easy to become pessimistic in the face of the very real challenges we are grappling with.

People’s love for technology has let businesses weave it, and themselves, into our lives, transforming how we work live and interact in this new world which we are referring to – in our Tech Vision 2020 – as the 'post-digital era'. But now we are being held back.

The impact of digitisation on small and medium enterprises is significant. Savvy SMEs can turn this to a huge advantage as they can do things quickly and in a more agile manner than big businesses. However, challenges abound when trying to protect innovative products and processes.

The 4th Industrial Revolution (4IR) is gaining traction in all sectors. Artificial intelligence (AI), robotics and automation are being applied to create ingenious innovations – advancements aimed at making life easier, improving productivity and speeding up the evolution of industries.

As exponential technologies are more widely adopted across the globe, we’ll see professions transform. Some will be disrupted entirely due to advancements in automation, mechanisation and robotics, but this will also create space for new technology-enabled job opportunities that we cannot yet imagine.

When the concept of volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) was coined by the U.S. Army in the 1990’s to describe how crazy the post-Cold War years were, those early proponents had no idea that this would continue to be true for years to come.

So far the effects of Artificial Intelligence (AI) have been slow to reveal themselves in businesses in South Africa but the scale of the oncoming change is starting to become apparent overseas. AI’s influence is growing in the workplace and will bring substantial change to South African offices in the next few years as machine learning, task automation and robotics are increasingly used in business.

An interview with Jessica Knight, Strategic Manager, CURA Software Solutions, and Dr Ivor Blumenthal, CEO, ArkKonsult, discussing that as a society, we are on the precipice of The Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR), and we are only just beginning to understand the radical effects it will have on the way we communicate, live and work.

While the 4th Industrial Revolution (4IR) presents immense opportunity for particularly the hospitality industry, the people-centred nature of these businesses will likely see human capital remaining an equally integral component to organisational success.

Public schools in South Africa can look forward to joining the digital education revolution as some of their private school counterparts have been experiencing for the past few years, but education experts have cautioned against a rush to provide tablets and other digital infrastructure before a solid strategy and fundamentals have been put in place.