The ‘Vortex of Change’ is transforming the way employees work, the challenges businesses face, and the tools companies can deploy, said Videsha Proothveerajh, Intel South Africa Country Lead.
“We are living in a world of change. It is no longer ‘Business as usual’,” Proothveerajh told journalists at a roundtable event in Johannesburg.
“70% of CEOs will centre their strategies around digital transformation by 2017, 40% of businesses in the top 20 of every industry will be disrupted by 2018, and 50% of the workforce will be Millenials by 2020.
“And this is the least amount of change we will ever see – it will only increase exponentially from here.”
Intel calls this the ‘Vortex of Change’, where business models are being turned upside down, size no longer guarantees success, and the innovative survive and thrive while the nervous and hesitant go under.
In this environment, new technologies are coming to the fore, including 3d printing, cognitive systems, smart machines, merged reality, wearable technology, distributed ledgers, 5G connectivity.
“Any one of those technologies has the ability to transform business, but if you look at them collectively, they have the power to disrupt the world,” said Proothveerajh.
“Yet Intel, with its innovation in cloud computing, data centre, Internet of Things, and PC solutions is powering the smart and connected digital world we live in and is able to pull these tech ecosystems together.”
Artificial Intelligence
One of the areas in which Intel is doing this is in Artificial Intelligence, which has the potential to unlock unprecedented value for businesses and societies.
Intel powers 97% of servers deployed to support machine learning workloads and has a team of researchers and cultural anthropologists working to unlock the societal benefits of creating machines with human-like intelligence.
Autonomous Driving
Another area where Intel is offering solutions to enable future technology is in autonomous driving, the global revenue of which is expected to reach $325 Billion in 2018.
Intel delivers a more secure, end-to-end platform to power autonomous driving with investments and experience that span the vehicle, communications network and the data centre.
Intel collaborates with established and emerging players in the automotive industry to enable today’s advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) and transition towards tomorrow’s fully autonomous vehicle.
5G
“In the next few years, 5G will fundamentally transform our lives. Everything will be smarter and more connected,” added Proothveerajh.
Intel aims to connect over 50 billion smart devices to the Cloud to capture to capture data, measure it in real-time, and be accessible from anywhere, and this will generate zettabytes of data.
From FPGAs to smart devices and software-defined data centres, Intel provides unmatched scale, innovation and expertise.
Virtual Reality
Through the combination of advanced drones, cameras and computer technology, VR has the potential to save lives, letting employees conduct dangerous inspections from a safe distance.
Intel 360 replay technology uses 38 HD 5k cameras to capture the action on a basketball court or playing field, producing about 2 terabytes of data per minute.
With Intel’s Project Alloy, headset wearers use their real hands, rather than controllers, to manipulate virtual objects, allowing Alloy wearers to walk around in a live-action, non-CGI video.
“We call it ‘merged reality’ – in which the real world and the virtual worlds are seamlessly combined,” said Proothveerajh.
“South Africa is lagging from an innovation perspective, and collectively we have a job to do to ensure that stakeholders understand the role technology can play in moving us forward,” concluded Proothveerajh.