It’s easy to mistake digital transformation for a singular, one-off activity rather than a state of mind that sees individuals and organizations in a constant state of change.  A recent report from consultancy firm Accenture explores this post-digital landscape and predicts a number of key trends that they believe will define business in the coming years.

At the heart of the new technological landscape is personalization, with the company reporting that organizations will live or die by their ability to deliver personalized realities and experiences to customers.  The difference is that digital excellence is no longer enough to differentiate companies, it’s the ticket to enter the market.

The report reveals that some 80% of executives believe that digital technology has moved beyond small pilot projects to become the very heart of their organization.

“A post-digital world doesn’t mean that digital is over,” Accenture say. “On the contrary, we’re posing a new question: As all organizations develop their digital competency, what will set YOU apart?  In this era, simply doing digital isn’t enough. Our Technology Vision highlights the ways in which organizations must use powerful new technologies to innovate in their business models and personalize experiences for their customers. At the same time, leaders must recognize that human values, such as trust and responsibility, are not just buzzwords but critical enablers of their success.”

Five emerging trends

The report goes on to identify five key trends that the company believe will define how successful organizations are at navigating this environment:

• DARQ technologies – Another acronym, with DARQ covering distributed ledgers, artificial intelligence, extended reality and quantum computing.  It’s not entirely clear what binds these together, but Accenture believe they will be the key technologies to master, with AI rated as the most important by executives (although that’s perhaps because they have even less understanding of the others than they do of AI)
• Understand your customers – Some 83% of executives believe that digital technologies will allow them both to understand customers on a more granular level, and to deliver customized solutions and experiences to them.
• Empower workers with technology – Accenture have long been of the opinion that technologies like AI will empower and augment the workforce rather than replace it.  In this latest survey, 71% of executives underlined the importance of investing in the skills of workers to allow them to capitalize on new technologies.
• Taking security seriously – As technologies and enterprises become more interconnected, the exposure to security risks increase.  Alas, this is an area for improvement with just 29% of executives believing that their ecosystem partners were working to be as compliant and secure as they might be.
• Speed up response to consumer demand – Customization is now seen as key to meeting the demand of consumers, with 85% of executives believing the integration of customization and real-time delivery will be the next big competitive advantage.

“It won’t be long before the standout examples of today are the norm. Companies are already investigating the next generation of technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), distributed ledgers like blockchain, extended reality, and quantum computing,” the authors say.

The report doesn’t go into tremendous detail about how companies can do this, but does urge organizations to try and figure out how they can shape the world around people whilst finding the precise time to offer their products and services to them.  There is a suspicion that the report is aimed as much at selling the company’s consulting services as anything else, but with digital transformation still a prickly topic in so many organizations, it may still be a worthwhile read.