Digital technologies need to augment human capabilities

Digital technologies are now widely accepted as co-existing with, and complementing human capabilities.

Digital transformation is now a necessity

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic was insurmountable for many businesses and industries, globally. It also significantly changed the nature of work which, for many, necessitated a rapid shift to online operations. This has altered the paradigm of digital transformation from one around strategic thought leadership, best-practice and innovation to one more focused on necessity.

Digital technologies are now widely accepted as co-existing with, and complementing human capabilities. How have digital technologies impacted productivity during the COVID-19 pandemic? According to a Boston Consulting Group survey on employee sentiment (conducted in the US, Germany, and India) there is an increasing appetite for flexible ways of working and 75 per cent of employees surveyed felt they had maintained or improved their perceived productivity on individual tasks during the first few months of the pandemic. However, on collaborative tasks, only 51 per cent of respondents felt that productivity over the same period was maintained or improved.

How to improve productivity on collaborative tasks in a virtual or hybrid model of work, is a challenge facing business. With workforces becoming increasingly global, maintaining team cohesion, in particular in hybrid working models, will be a significant challenge for business.

Amidst these unprecedented changes to the way we work and the exponential reliance on technology, how do we maintain and nurture the human side of business? How do we empower individuals? How do we manage the net depletion of social capital resulting from the lack of social bonds and connectivity?

Digital transformation is a human affair

Digital transformation is impossible without human transformation. People are at the core of any business transformation – digital, social, cultural. Workers should be embedded into the digital transformation ecosystems for planning, consultation and implementation.

It must be a business and government priority to re- and upskill the existing workforce and work with education systems to ensure a flexible, adaptable, innovative, visionary and agile workforce is readily available. After all, digital technologies are only there to augment the capabilities that humans can provide.

SMEs see digitally-enabled transformation as being critical to positive customer experience; innovative, streamlined and best-practice operational processes and ultimately shifting from traditional ways of delivering products and services to more digitally-enabled and sustainable models.

Shifting to understanding digital transformation as a business necessity will support corporations to adapt in transformative, rather than transactional, ways to leverage business models in a rapidly changing global environment.