Enabling Technology

This article restates (without being prophetic) the basic reality that all of work is being transformed by technology, so let’s keep pushing forward with digital transformation efforts! The authors suggest that these efforts are “future-proofing” our organizations. Based on a Bain study, the authors provide six practices, and lots of pioneering case examples, for “assembling and managing teams” leveraging data and technology.

This is a follow on to Mark Zuckerberg’s recent announcement that Facebook will become a metaverse company – moving from 2D to a 3D “embodied [online] world”. In this article, the author explores what currently exists in the beta release of Facebook’s Workrooms – a product that, in name, seems to be focused on 3D work meetings. I am late to this game, so I will refrain from saying more! However, I think it may be time for fast followers to dive in! Read on to gain a quick understanding.

I’m on the bandwagon of “digital twins”. A digital twin is “a [digital] model describing the behavior of its physical twin, and sensors that provide the real-time “coupling” to the model.” As this article mentions, we witnessed the use of a digital twin in the movie, Apollo 13, when we watched astronauts working in a simulator trying to construct a sequence to safely land the ailing spacecraft of their colleagues. Though the idea of digital twins is far from being a new concept, the reality of its use has only recently begun to be realized – due to the now ubiquitous data, cheap storage, and fast CPU speeds. This idea of digital twins is only going to gain prevalence within our companies.

I love how this post addresses the ‘now normal’ of remote teams not as a threat but as an opportunity to “construct a workplace digitally, around a problem or issue that needs to be managed, and pull in the workers and resources required in virtual space”. There is no equivocating around the idea of remote work. Instead, the authors share how technology enables virtual workspaces if we are willing to bring a positive attitude and proactive mindset to the table. Again, another well-written article.

I highlighted this article because I hadn’t seen the acronym of AIoT (Artificial Intelligence + Internet of Things), even though it appears that the term heralds from several years back. Where have I been? I can’t say. The article is a simple 60 second read to highlight the value of using AI on real-time IoT data in order “to learn, self-correct and self-diagnose potential issues”. I like the image of this occuring in the wearables marketplace.

This is a simple post that visits each piece of the grocery value chain and talks through how technology can be leveraged to automate processes and manage future costs. Nice review of the ubiquitous impact of technology on business (even if it is only one industry and focuses on cost management).

This article is an interesting challenge to, if not a quasi rebuke of, industrial companies for what the authors surmise as a premature move away from AI. The article admits the undebated lack of overwhelming success of AI efforts to date, but, it proceeds to counter the objections to AI as well as to lay out some learnings for a renewed effort.

I may be the last to grow tired of “digital twinning”. This is the ability to construct a digital double of a physical or business environment, so you can model and run scenarios to create designs and/or improvements to systems. The technology is here. This article talks about the use of this approach in various aspects of city planning.

Very interesting article about the different approaches to leverage the merits of cloud computing. It’s amazing to see how quickly companies can respond to a changing environment with the plug-and-play use of cloud applications. The article explores four approaches to cloud architecture – each delivering different benefits and constraints. I appreciated the nuance of the comparison, as I had never thought through it at this level of detail.