Dubai, United Arab Emirates
New summary
- New dawn of immense possibility on the horizon: 87% of regional business leaders polled expect their workforce and machines will work as integrated teams within five years
- Leaders in UAE and Saudi Arabia divided on what this future means: the majority (64%) think that automated systems will free up time, 36% disagree
- Organizations united in need to transform and how, but not moving fast enough: only 27% in the region believe they are leading the way, ingraining digital in everything they do.
We’re entering the next era of human-machine partnerships with a divided vision of the future, according to research now available from Dell Technologies. Half of the 3,800 global business leaders surveyed forecast that automated systems will free up their time including a majority of leaders in the UAE and KSA. Similarly, 55% of regional leaders believe they’ll have more job satisfaction in the future by offloading tasks to machines.
The quantitative research conducted by Vanson Bourne follows Dell Technologies’ seminal story, ‘Realizing 2030: The Next Era of Human-Machine Partnerships’. That study forecasted that by 2030, emerging technologies will forge human partnerships with machines that are richer and more immersive than ever before, helping us surpass our limitations. Business leaders agree: 87% of respondents from the region expect humans and machines will work as integrated teams within their organization inside of five years.
Concerning business tasks which would be outsourced to machines by 2030, leaders in the region listed Marketing and Communications and Product Design as most likely followed by Human Resources and Financial Administration , Logistics or Supply Chain, and Customer Service and Troubleshooting.
However, regional opinions are also split by whether the future represents an opportunity or a threat, and torn by the need to mitigate these risks.1 For instance:
- 50% say the more we depend upon technology, the more we’ll have to lose in the event of a cyber-attack; the other half aren’t concerned
- 58% of business leaders are calling for clear protocols in the event that autonomous machines fail; while 42% abstained
- 51% say computers will need to decipher between good and bad commands; 49% don’t see a need
Mohammed Amin, Senior Vice President – META, Dell EMC, said, “As organizations prepare to enter this next era of human and machine partnerships, leaders are evidently torn between two extreme perspectives about the future varying between optimism and anxiety. This differing viewpoint could make it difficult for organizations to prepare for the future and certainly hamper leaders’ efforts to push through necessary change.”
Given the promise of monumental change—fuelled by exponentially increasing data and the applications, processing power and connectivity to harness it—63% in the region speculate that schools will need to teach how to learn rather than what to learn to prepare students for jobs that don’t yet exist. This thinking corroborates the previous study’s forecast that 85% of jobs that will exist globally in 2030 haven’t been invented yet.
Beset by barriers
Furthermore, many businesses aren’t moving fast enough, and going deep enough, to overcome common barriers to operating as a successful digital business. Only 27% of regional businesses believe they are leading the way, ingraining digital in all they do. Nearly half (45%) don’t know whether they’ll be able to compete over the next decade, and the majority (68%) of businesses are struggling to keep-up with the pace of change.
The lack of workforce readiness was identified as the leading barrier to becoming a successful digital business in 2030, further emphasizing the need for skill development among existing employees and future generations. A majority of leaders in the region (73%) also identified the lack of a digital vision and strategy as a prominent barrier. These were followed by the barriers of technology constraints (61%), time and money (47%) and finally law and regulations (22%).
Unified by the need to transform
Leaders may be divided in their view of the future and facing barriers to change, but they’re united in the need to transform. In fact, the vast majority of businesses believe they’ll be well on their way to transforming within five years, despite the challenges they face.
Likely to achieve within five years in UAE & KSA:
- Have effective cybersecurity defences in place: 96%
- Deliver their product offering as a service: 96%
- Complete their transition to a software-defined business: 97%
- R&D will drive their organization forward: 94%
- Delivering hyper-connected customer experiences with virtual reality (VR): 92%
- Using AI to pre-empt customer demands: 93%
Mohammed Amin adds, “We’re entering an era of monumental change that will fundamentally change the way businesses operate and prioritize investments. While half of the business leaders in the region are unsure of what the next ten to fifteen years look like for their industry and are struggling with the quick pace of change, a large majority are looking at embracing change and new technologies in their digital business plans for the next five years. This pivotal time is rich with opportunities of collaboration and innovation. It is becoming increasingly clear that businesses can either transform their IT, workforce, and security and play a defining role in the future or be left behind.”
Additional resources
- For more information on the quantitative research report, executive summary and infographic, please visit www.delltechnologies.com/realizing2030
- Additional information on Dell Technologies Realizing 2030 initiative can be found, www.delltechnologies.com/realizing2030
- Find out more about how Dell Technologies is collaboratively solving customers’ biggest challenges by visiting Dell Technologies’ Annual Report to Customers
- Connect with Dell Technologies on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn
- Tables below show business leaders’ forecasts for the future, and how they are divided about technologies’ upcoming impact on our lives, work and business in general. 2
About the study
The research was commissioned by Dell Technologies and undertaken by Vanson Bourne, an independent research company, completed in June to August 2017 with 3,800 business leaders from mid-size to large enterprises across 17 countries including UAE and KSA. The respondents were drawn from 12 industries and key functions impacting the customer experience (from business owners to decision-makers in IT, marketing, customer service, R&D and finance, etc.). The research explores the changing relationship between technology and people, emerging technologies’ impact on business and the way we work and how business leaders and CIOs plan to succeed over the next 10 to 15 years.
About Vanson Bourne
Vanson Bourne is an independent specialist in market research for the technology sector. Its reputation for robust and credible research-based analysis is founded upon rigorous research principles and an ability to seek the opinions of senior decision makers across technical and business functions, in all business sectors and all major markets. For more information, visit www.vansonbourne.com.
About Dell Technologies
Dell Technologies is a unique family of businesses that provides the essential infrastructure for organizations to build their digital future, transform IT and protect their most important asset, information. The company services customers of all sizes across 180 countries – ranging from 98% of the Fortune 500 to individual consumers – with the industry’s most comprehensive and innovative portfolio from the edge to the core to the cloud.
CONTACT(S):
Nisha Idicula
+971 568 050 380
1 Business leaders are divided by what the shift into the next era will mean for them, their business and even the world at large.
2 Below tables showcase forecasts from business leaders’ in the UAE and KSA for the future, and how they are divided about technologies’ upcoming impact on our lives, work and business in general:
Our Lives
Forecast | Agree | Disagree |
Automated systems will free-up our time | 64% | 36% |
People will take care of themselves better with healthcare tracking devices | 58% | 42% |
People will absorb and manage information in completely different ways | 63% | 37% |
Smart machines will work as admins in our lives – connecting our lives to highly personalized goods and services | 46% | 54% |
It will be harder to disconnect from technology | 44% | 56% |
Our Work
Forecast | Agree | Disagree |
We’ll be more productive by collaborating more | 61% | 39% |
We’ll have more job satisfaction by offloading the tasks that we don’t want to do to intelligent machines | 55% | 45% |
Schools will need to teach how to learn rather than what to learn to prepare students for jobs that don’t exist yet | 63% | 37% |
We’ll learn on the job with AR | 52% | 48% |
Not sure what the next 10-15 years will look like for their industry, let alone their employees | 52% | 48% |
Business
Forecast | Agree | Disagree |
Clear protocols will be need to be established if autonomous machines fail | 58% | 42% |
The more we depend upon technology, the more we’ll have to lose in the event of a cyber-attack | 50% | 50% |
Computers will need to be able to decipher between good and bad commands | 51% | 49% |
We’ll be part of a globally connected, remote workforce | 55% | 45% |
Technology will connect the right person to the right task, at the right time | 46% | 54% |
© Press Release 2018
