From Looking Digital to Being Digital: The Impact of Technology on the Future of Work Key components of intelligent digital processes Start with information. Intelligent digital processes are embedded with sensors that monitor every action—from a wheel An ensemble of new technologies makes Cognitive augmentation: Technologies spinning in a pump to a clerk scanning possible intelligent digital processes. can augment thinking by offloading a box—and feed those observations into Together, they collect and analyze routine knowledge work to automated sophisticated models that allow people and information and augment the capacity of assistants. These tools will only become software to make real-time adjustments human workers to make rapid adjustments increasingly sophisticated thanks to voice and decisions. They exploit the connected and exploit opportunities. There are six recognition, natural language processing, nature of devices—both within and key component technologies: and other technological advances, and between organizations—to establish a data the line that separates a tool from an web that is both active and interactive. Ubiquitous data streams: New physical assistant—or even a teammate—will and virtual sensors combined with high start to blur. Add in analytics. Powerful modeling capacity networks make it possible to techniques search for patterns in the process and store many large streams of Physical augmentation: This comes data—some based on hypotheses, others data. These tools systematically sense about thanks to advanced robot dredged out of the data itself—that bring (and remember) both internal (workstream) technologies that are small, safe, and a level of self-awareness to seemingly and external (ecosystem) events at flexible enough to be inserted into isolated activities. Models make it possible enormous scale. human workflows. These new robots to establish a virtuous cycle of constant can sense and adapt to their improvement, fed by continuous feedback. Advanced analytics and modeling: environment, enabling them to interact But, even more important, they can identify Big-data analytics provide new ways to directly with people to create a hybrid opportunities for adaptation (for example, transform data into insight. These analytics human-robot workflow. a revenue opportunity such as a niche in can also be used to automatically discover the market or a reconfiguration of the which process variations have resulted in Collaborative augmentation: value chain), analyze tradeoffs and clarify higher performance so that companies can Technologies can improve the ways decision alternatives, and then adapt faster replicate those practices elsewhere. in which employees coordinate work and more efficiently. Reports that used to and co-create new products. Among describe “what happened” last quarter or Rich digital representations: Increasingly, these technologies are systems that yesterday are now active conversations physical objects that are intermediate or enable social networking, discussion between machines as they react to isolated final work products are also being replaced forums, online file sharing, real-time events as well as to trends. by digital representations; these are videoconferencing, and virtual task and translated into physical form as late in the project management. Next, enrich with visualization tools. process as possible by programmable robots Advances in the visual display of and 3D printers. information—fueled in part by parallel developments in electronic gaming and aviation—make it possible for operators Intelligent Digital Processes and managers to literally see systems rather than tables in a report. The same tools that now enliven social networking Ubiquitous Data Streams Advanced Analytics & Modeling sites are migrating to the factory floor and to office environments—not just to enable communication but to support real-time work flow adjustment, as well. Rich Digital Representations Cognitive Physical Collaborative Augmentation Augmentation Augmentation 12 | Accenture | Copyright 2014 Accenture. All rights reserved. ©