Experts attribute various tools to key technologies of digitalization of management. A number of experts highlight six that are the most important today and have the greatest impact on management. These are big data, business analytics, AI, mobile methods, social networks, cloud computing.
The list of key technologies of the future, compiled by experts from the McKinsey Global Institute, is somewhat broader and consists of 12 items: mobile Internet, Internet of Things, cloud technologies, automation of intellectual labor, unmanned or almost autonomous vehicles (this area – electric self-driving cars – is actively developed by Google), robotics, advanced genomics, new methods of energy storage, renewable energy sources (solar, wind, hydroelectric power plants), 3D printing, innovative methods of gas and oil production, materials science.
Key technologies for digitalization of management
Accenture and experts from the some of the key features of band World Economic Forum classify seven tools as technologies with the greatest potential to influence business:
AI, cognitive technologies;
autonomous vehicles;
cloud computing, big data, BI analytics;
3D printing, additive manufacturing technologies;
internet of things;
autonomous drones, robots;
social networks and platforms.
The transition of production to digital is happening in parallel with the implementation of the concept of Industry 4.0. Factories operate without the participation of employees and are controlled (as a whole, within a separate conveyor or an entire group of production facilities) by smart control systems. Human labor is being massively replaced by artificial intelligence, robots and other augmentation technologies. The document where the term "Industry 4.0" was first used was the strategic plan for the development of the German economy. The leitmotif of this material was the need to make a breakthrough in the field of IT.
In Russian-speaking circles, another term is in use: the fourth industrial revolution. However, initially it had a narrower interpretation and was understood exclusively as the digitalization of production processes through sensors that were built into almost all components of equipment, the use of cyber-physical systems, and the study of all the data that could be collected. That is, Industry 4.0 is, in fact, the production of smart objects. When your mobile phone's resource is coming to an end, the device warns the manufacturer about it, and the task queue at the factory is automatically replenished with the item: make another phone. By the time you throw away your completely worn-out gadget, a new one will already be waiting for you in a convenient place.