Bhaskar Ghosh

Accenture has taken a comprehensive look across the enterprise landscape to identify emerging technology trends that hold the greatest potential to disrupt businesses, industries and people. Accenture’s annual Technology Vision report predicts the most significant technology trends that people will apply to disrupt business over the next three years. The theme for Accenture’s Technology Vision 2017 report is ‘Technology for People’, underscoring that people are shaping technology to adapt to us, and in turn, we are designing the future using technology to fit our needs.

According to the report, 80% of executives surveyed agree that organizations need to understand not only where people are today, but also where they want to be. This is reaffirming the fact that the changing digital landscape and technological shift requires rapid advances created towards people-centric technology environment where the power lies with people in shaping technology.

Bhaskar Ghosh, Group Chief Executive – Accenture Technology Services in an interview to DATAQUEST shares more insights on the report. Excerpts.

What are the key findings of Accenture Technology vision 2017 report?

The three key findings from the Accenture Technology Vision 2017 report are:

• We are currently in an unprecedented time in technology fueled by rapid advances that raise important societal challenges that require leaders to be responsive and act responsibly. Accenture believes that the impact of these innovations will be positive – driving the biggest transformation since the Information Age – because the power lies with people.
• We’re in control and can shape technology so that it adapts to us and amplifies us. Technology for People shows the way to an exciting future where technology is designed by humans, for humans to create positive change, improve lives, and transform business and society.
• This human-centered technology approach pays off for businesses and this will be a defining time for them, as organisations who capture this trend will not only be able to transform themselves, but importantly, transform from being providers to partners in their relationships with customers and employees.

If you say ‘People centric technology environment’- what exactly you mean by that?

The main theme from the report is that people hold the power to shape, design and apply technology. What we mean is that advances in technologies like big data analytics, artificial intelligence, Internet of Things and others have created an enormous opportunity for humans to design technology that is capable of anticipating our needs and delivering hyper-personalized experiences. This presents a new era of innovation, collaboration with technology and human amplification, creating possibilities never seen before. The scope of this will be exponential progress in business and society, which is why we’re poised perhaps for the biggest change since the Information Age.

How is Accenture going ahead with the findings and how is it going to manifest in your go-to-market strategies?

The Technology Vision is integral to the fabric of Accenture and demonstrates our commitment to innovation and focus on technology. The Vision is intended to identify those future technology trends that will have a significant business impact over the next three years. It serves as a guide for how we advise our clients and create solutions, so they are in the best position to take advantage of technology shifts and developments. The Vision provides guidance on what companies should do short-term, as well as over the coming years to prepare for and adapt to these future technology changes. We provide clients with actionable plans to start taking action on each of the trends, and we hold hundreds of innovation workshops around the world each year specifically on how clients can begin focusing on the trends.