Our takeaways: How the C-suite will thrive
Chief executive officer
As the holistic business visionary, the CEO is focused on ensuring the organization stays relevant, forward-thinking and profitable. And today, that means empowering the people who use your products or services to enrich their lives in ways they otherwise couldn’t without your business.
Effective implementation of digital mesh innovations such as blockchains, for example, will put users in complete control of all of their information and transactions, giving them more power and insight into an activity that would have otherwise been supervised by a third party.
And take wearable camera company Narrative, for example. It developed a game that helps children with autism improve their ability to recognize others’ emotions. The company’s wearable camera, a smart device powered by machine learning, takes photos every 30 seconds, interprets and tags emotions for facial expressions, allows the user to identify those emotions and even gives feedback. This innovative way of helping autistic children through gamification makes Narrative more than a company that simply sells wearable cameras.
Chief financial officer
By 2021, the cost of cybercrime damages is expected to reach $6 trillion annually, according to research by Cybersecurity Ventures. Finding ways to maximize budget and revenue in a threatening new world of costly cyberattacks has given the seemingly straightforward CFO role a whole new dimension.
But blockchains’ lack of decentralized networks, for example, enable blockchain systems to withstand malicious attacks more effectively, generating cost savings through proactive security for organizations. Additionally, with no overhead costs or third-party intermediaries, blockchain technology investment can mean significantly lower transaction fees.
And even though by 2021 the world will need to cyberdefend 50 times more data,2 cyberthreat detection will become timelier and more easily addressed than ever before with AI’s real-time capability to discover and analyze patterns even amid massive data labyrinths. In short, the digital mesh unleashes new possibilities for dynamic cybersecurity.
Chief technology officer
In the midst of such rapid technological evolution, the CTO’s role is the most critical it’s ever been. And with the daunting responsibility to make technological investments that consider both internal and external lines of business, CTOs will be able to use IT trends such as AI to help them make the right decisions.
British AI company DeepMind, for example, is helping Google use AI software to optimize energy efficiencies for one of its data centers — while also adapting to varying factors such as weather and usage. Google has since seen a 15% drop in its energy consumption. With this AI software’s proven benefits, it’s a sound example of a win-win investment that adds value for any B2B company with a data center that services other data centers.
One last thing: Know the scope.
As always, it’s essential to know the bigger picture and how these trends will affect your business from not only a high-level standpoint, but from a deeper technological perspective as well. Gartner’s full report on the top 10 tech trends for 2017 reveals these types of insights and dives deeper into all 10 predicted IT trends, along with recommendations for adapting to the intelligent digital mesh.
1 Gartner. (2016, Nov. 7). Gartner Predicts 2017: CRM Customer Service and Support. Maoz, M., Davies, J., Sussin, J., Huang, O., Manusama, B., LeBlanc, N., & Robison, J.
2 Gartner. (2016, Oct. 14). Top 10 Strategic Technology Trends for 2017. Cearley, D., Walker, M., & Burke, B.
