According to the 2020 Technology Vision Consumer Survey conducted by Accenture, 52 percent of consumers say that technology plays a prominent role or is ingrained into almost all aspects of their day-to-day lives. In fact, 19 percent report that technology is so intertwined with their lives that they view it as an extension of themselves. Accenture found that globally, people spend an average of 6.4 hours online daily. They are post-digital.

However, Accenture’s trend analysts see a disconnect between the public’s embrace of technology and the way some businesses develop and deploy technology solutions. They’ve come up with a term to describe it: tech-clash.
Accenture offers several examples of tech-clash:

• Closed ecosystems that can make experiences disjointed.
• Artificial intelligence solutions that are applied to decision-making without transparency, leaving people out of the loop on decisions that directly affect their lives.
• Concerns about security, privacy and ethical issues that keep people wary of companies’ evolving digital technology innovations.

Accenture says that navigating tech-clash is a key challenge for C-suite leaders in the next decade. As the authors of the Technology Vision study point out, “Up until now, businesses have largely benefited from following the technology roadmap laid out by digital pioneers. Now, digital technology is evolving from an advantage to a basic expectation—and yesterday’s best practices are turning into today’s shortcomings. Companies must deliver more human-focused experiences, in line with what people have come to expect.”

As Accenture concludes, “The success of the next generation of products and services will rest on companies’ ability to elevate the human experience, adapting to the world they’ve created. None of the steps on the journey are incremental changes, nor are they as simple as finding the next technological tool to do what you’re already doing today. Leading in the future will demand rethinking core assumptions about how an enterprise works and redefining the intersection between people and technology.”

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