I like a good trends article at the start of the year as opposed to one that safely predicts what is going to happen or one that contains a million caveats because it might be wide of the mark.  

I found a brilliant piece from DXC Technology who know a thing or two about....... technology but also how it impacts or could impact upon the workplace specifically from a b2b and enterprise perspective.   The original article can be found here but I have summarised the 5 key trend takeaways below:

1/ AI redefines professional services: AI is already revolutionising the legal, accounting, healthcare and education professions mainly through democratisation and decision support and this is set to continue with low cost intelligent agents.  They shouldn't be over relied upon however and should be used to compliment the professionals skillsets and knowledge.

2/ Design thinking is shifting from IT services for people to IT services for machines: Essentially this is all linked to processing and then using data that companies have at their disposal.  Machines can process data and make decisions with what to do with the outcome much faster than humans.  This will drive companies to pursue IT modernisation due to the fact that the end product will greatly benefit the end user/consumer.

3/ The value of data increases in ecosystems: GDPR has driven this and 2020 is the year that businesses start using the data in ecosystems at their disposal to achieve business goals.  Once trust mechanisms are fully in place, the data that could potentially be shared will really positively impact industries like the fragmented healthcare, automotive and financial industries.

4/ Teams not superstars are the high performers: Successful high performing teams are empowered to make key decisions.  Companies that stick with a traditional pyramid model with siloed teams will struggle in the dynamic and complex business environment that most enterprise businesses now operate in.  Communication and flexibility amongst teams and their members is key and will drive companies to restructure.

5/ A new wave of business leaders will accelerate business transformation: New leaders will look to advocate for technologies that can improve their companies speed, agility, productivity and innovative advantage.  Leaders technology missions will actually change and move away from just supplying IT but instead will embrace the world of digital often requiring new skills and culture.  Interestingly, these leaders can also be found in the middle of the organisation too where inertia can often be found to hold companies back.

Technology and change in general is often viewed as disruptive in the short term and sometimes highly controversial however, history points to the fact that in the long term, in conjunction with behavioural change and adoption, it has proved highly beneficial for economies, societies and of course businesses.