Smart Technology Is Changing Our World

Technology is changing the nature of business and the way we live, as smart devices inhabit every corner of work and home. Businesses used to sell simple products that carried out simple tasks but now sell smart products that track our every habit. Smart technology collects our personal data, analyses our behaviour patterns, and is changing the world.

Businesses in all industries are using digital technology to make smart products that gather information and report on the detail of what we do and how we do it.

Smart products collect and analyse data, provide feedback to develop better products and connect and talk to each other via the Internet.

They offer tremendous opportunities for the growth of new markets and the potential to increase the profitability of the organisations that embrace them.

They also offer significant challenges to businesses not willing to engage and use them to improve competitiveness and develop new markets.

Technology has, in the past, helped improve productivity but this time it is different as smart products have the potential to disrupt businesses and destroy industries.

Previous incarnations of technological change helped improve efficiency but the scale and scope of the current change is more significant and widespread.

The changes are driven by connectivity as smart products carry out the functions for which they were designed but also learn from what they are doing to enable the next generation.

The difference with the current generation of smart products comes from a combination of falling costs, increased connectivity, miniaturisation and the development of cloud-based systems to increase connectivity.

Smart products are driven by data and the use of data to inform performance, not just in their own area but also in comparison to other products and other product areas.

Smart products will connect to other similar products but will also connect to other systems to improve performance.

The level and rate of learning is exponential, as smart products talk to each other and glean information via the Internet from any source it finds useful.

One of the main effects of such learning will be a step-change in how businesses and industries perform and compete, as smart products link previously separate and unrelated functions.

Another effect is that new companies will increasingly disrupt traditional industries and areas of business, as technology enables them to compete on the basis of low cost and creativity.

The interesting thing about the development of smart products is that they will help to grow every area of business and with increased connectivity and access are reinventing how we work and live.

SO, smart products are changing the world and the people and organisations that embrace them will be the winners of the future.