Management consulting giant PwC has predicted in a recent report that the year 2020 will see global unrest by the student community due to an ever shrinking job market globally. In India, the scenario is similar with loads of graduates being produced annually with limited employable skills. In addition, the English-educated middle class has started off a new trend of apathy towards conventional jobs with many of them opting to be part of the now thriving startup scene in the country. This middle class has also created jobs for the less educated people in skilled and unskilled positions such as drivers, security guards or gardeners. Another emerging factor is the green world where companies are increasingly becoming conscious about social conscience and green social responsibility. A Partner at KPMG too confirms that a shift has occurred in employee motivations. Freelancing and robotics will provide massive opportunities over the coming years. A report by a Miami based collaborative community states that three-fourths of freelancers on the platform are working out from India. Firms such as Zoho, Fresh desk and Zen desk are leveraging cloud technologies to provide major solutions to global clients.

Source:https://yourstory.com/2017/06/future-of-work/

Uploaded Date:01/07/2017

Several new technologies are presently at the forefront of innovations. This includes 3D printing, drones, artificial intelligence, robotics, genomics and big data, all of which have the power to transform business and lifestyle. Yet which of them will and how fast depends on the identification of human needs. A major reason why companies often fail to turn emerging technologies into genuine business value is their obsession with the new shiny objects. They do not wish to engage in real business problems, but seek to create value by simply trusting the technology. However, no technology will succeed unless latent demand exists. Thus every new technology may not be the right solution for the business, but some could be. Another reason is investment in non-core areas. The innovation model stresses on connecting new technologies to existing company core competencies. Business innovation cannot take place in silos, but needs the entire organization to be onside with the idea. Technology suites need to be scaled to take advantage of numbers rather than niches. Special recruitment of catalysts and enablers must be done instead of trying to get newer things done by old hands. To test the feasibility of any technology induced business mode, a prototype needs to be created and a pilot test be launched into the real world. A Minimum Viable Business Model can be the way to kick-start next practices.

Source:http://innovationexcellence.com/blog/2017/05/25/next-how-to-convert-emerging-tech-into-next-practices/

Uploaded Date:27/06/2017

Chatbots have for quite some time been hailed as the next big thing in business. While they are making strides, an objective assessment is required which is why a study report was presented at the Chatbot Summit in Berlin. Just a year on from a mere eleven thousand Facebook Messenger bots, the number has risen to over a hundred thousand by the middle of 2017. Even Venture Capital funds have started seriously investing in chatbots with the figure having gone up to US$ 58 million by now and even Slack has raised funds for its own platform now. Tech giants Facebook, Google, Amazon and Microsoft are involved in massive competition over such bots. While Facebook and Microsoft are developing newer bots for different applications, Google on the other hand is acquiring tools to support existing ones. Business analytics is driving the operations of chatbots such as Facebook’s M, Amazon’s Lex and Microsoft’s Kik and Ruuh. Samsung meanwhile has acquired Viv. As per a survey, eighty percent of brands have confirmed they wish to acquire or develop one by 2020. By 2018, the trend upwards will continue with chatbots being the next frontier. In order to be truly effective, bots need to be able to operate across platforms or devices.

Source:https://venturebeat.com/2017/06/11/one-year-later-heres-the-state-of-the-chatbot-economy/

Uploaded Date:27/06/2017

Chatbots have evolved and are now much smarter than earlier. We now have voice based chatbots such as Siri, Alexa and Google Home, plus native ones like Slack and Facebook Messenger. The next level is Emotional Intelligence (EI). Various human emotions were tagged by studying usage patterns and EI based chatbots were created. It has broadly divided human interaction into six emotions that are – happiness, anger, surprise, sadness, disgust and fear. They enable personalized interaction. Machine learning enabled programmes such as Affectiva allow mapping of customer expressions using webcams. This generates authentic business intelligence on customer feelings and reactions. Customer services can also be improved by them. Overall greater efficiency is achieved along with an improvement in responsiveness as there is no lag due to people issues. The behaviour analysis that is done provides a long term data warehousing for the ways in which customers react at different situations. The problem solving is also fairly instant.

Source:https://medium.com/@PatrickHQ/chatbots-are-getting-smarter-with-emotional-intelligence-9ea5cb573d54

Uploaded Date:19/06/2017