Digital transformation will be materializing faster and at a wider scale than ever before in the wake of COVID-19, says a top executive of Dell Technologies.
“What we thought would happen in the next decade look set to happen soon,” the firm’s vice president Anothai Wettayakorn told The Story Thailand.
Overseeing Asia emerging markets and South Asia consumer business for Dell Technologies, Anothai was speaking with confidence as digital technologies have clearly saved the business sector in the times of COVID-19 crisis.
“Of course, the pandemic has hit various businesses. But they do not reach the rock bottom because digital technologies enable their business activities,” Anothai said. He predicted that an increasing number of entrepreneurs would integrate innovations to their business operations in the near future.
Before COVID-19 struck, Dell Technologies researches suggested that human machine partnership was going to become a big trend in 2030. Anothai described “human machine partnership” as the close collaboration between humans and machines, which are enabled by technologies such as innovative 5G, automation, virtual reality, multi cloud, artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and extended reality (XR).
Anothai explained that many of these technologies had already been deployed but not yet fully embraced.
“COVID-19 is apparently the catalyst,” he said.
Impacts of Human Machine Partnership
Anothai said human machine partnership would spur digital transformation and digital businesses, offer flexible work conditions for humans, and bring forth the blend of physical and virtual reality.
From his viewpoint, people will get safer when IoT (Internet of Things) are installed around their cities. Road trips will become more convenient as cars will be able to communicate with one another. At home, automation systems promise to help with turning on/turning off lights, cooking, and house chores.
“We will see more robots at home and these robots will be able to learn,” Anothai foresaw.
Working in Post-COVID 19 Era
Anothai said to employers, the advanced technologies meant they would be able to hire someone living far away while employees would have greater opportunities to work from home.
“More than half of professionals will work from home,” he predicted, adding that about 40 per cent of his firm’s customers intended to keep work-from-home mode even after the pandemic ended.
Anothai explained that the work-from-home experiences during the past few months had made clear to employers and employees alike that it was not always necessary to work inside office and that teleconferences were also fine.
Anothai said employees would not need to commute when they were allowed to work from home while their employers could save office space.
Dell Technologies had allowed 30 per cent of their staff to work from home and about 65 per cent others to choose their work schedule for more than one decade at the time COVID-19 outbreak started. In the face of the pandemic, the firm gave the green light for about 90 per cent of its staff to work from home from March 15 this year.
“We want to protect our staff. Commuting may put them at risk. In times of a crisis, employers should make their staff feel secure and protected, and prepare ways to support their customers for example through the help of technologies,” Anothai emphasized.
Working from home does not necessarily isolate people working together, as often teleconferences show colleagues’ family members and pets in the background.
“Sometimes, people use teleconference systems to play music together. They find a way to bond,” Anothai pointed out.
This tech man has an optimistic viewpoint. “For the first time ever, a crisis shakes every human on the Earth. People are changing their way of life to cope with pandemic. But I believe some changes are for the better,” Anothai concluded, “There is always the light at the end of the tunnel. Humans are about to open a new door to the new world”.
