For a moment, imagine yourself as the owner of a small business, waking up on a normal weekday in 1989. You are on your way to your shop, ready for a day in which it would not be uncommon to stop at a post office on your way to work to collect letters of correspondence, brochures from suppliers and even hand written cheques from customers to pay off their accounts. In fact, you yourself might write out a few cheques to pay suppliers for goods that you ordered for your store. You would write out any customer receipts and invoices, as well as statements of account for customers who buy on credit. You do all your bookkeeping tasks with pen and paper. On top of all that, every letter and document needs to be mailed and delivered by hand.
Contrast that to a day in 2023… In the first place, you might not even have a physical store. You run an e-commerce shop from home. The first thing you do when you wake up is to pick up your smartphone, where you have access to any information you can think of. Almost all documents and correspondence is delivered to you by e-mail. Most of your basic bookkeeping tasks are automated, since all your transactions are logged by your online store’s software suite. After a transaction, an invoice is automatically generated and sent to the customer by email and the transaction is captured on a statement.
So how much has changed?
These changes have taken place over the course of about three decades. Well that might sound like a long time, but it’s not… When you consider the technological advances that was necessary to allow these changes it becomes clear how drastically information technology has changed the workplace environment. I mean IT has revolutionized all aspects of life.
Abby McCain states in an online article named: “HOW FAST IS TECHNOLOGY ADVANCING? [2023]: GROWING, EVOLVING, AND ACCELERATING AT EXPONENTIAL RATES“, that the processing power of computers have roughly doubled every two years for the past 40 or so years. This also holds true to Moore’s Law. Gordon E. Moore was a co-founder of Intel in 1965, who predicted that the amount of transistors on microchips will double every two years, for the next 10 years… it’s 46 years later now…
They’re smarter than we thought
With this immense increase in computational power, new possibilities are increasing even faster. In the last few years we have seen Artificial Intelligence taking off. More and more tasks that were once viewed as “Impossible for machines to do”, are being done by AI on a daily basis. And this is having a profound effect on the job market. Think of jobs like being a taxi driver with the introduction of self-driving cars. Now, picture yourself in a hospital. It is already a very technologically advanced place, yet now with AI, you can start to imagine computers making diagnoses of patients. Another aspect is the recruiting process. Big corporate firms are starting to use algorithms to filter through their databases of CV’s and job applications, to find applicants that best match their current best performing employees.
BIIIGGGÂ Data
“Big Data” has also made a name for itself in recent years. Providing greater insights and predictions into business decisions than any human could do before. This is also changing the work environment in a BIG way…
Back to the scenario of you as the owner of a small business. In the past you had to make important decisions based on limited information that you had at hand and rely on your intuition. These days, with your online store, you get complete analytical breakdowns. You know who your customers are and what they like, making it easier to stock your shop with products that cater to your market. And this is only a simple, single example.
I’m sure you can imagine how many aspects of a business there is to make decisions about. Now imagine how crucial good information is to all of them. Statista.com states that about 90% of all the data in the world – like all captured data, ever – was generated in just the last two years. With shocking statistics like these it is clear to see how fast the world as we know it is changing.
In conclusion
What does this mean for you and me? Well with the rapidly evolving world we live in, opportunity favors those who can adapt. Those who can keep themselves up-to-date with the latest developments in tech. Gone are the days of learning a single skill and only using that skill until you retire. It is imperative to evolve with the times as IT is changing the workplace environment at lightning pace.
As a carpenter, you need to have social media marketing skills to promote your services. As a farmer, you need to have analytical knowledge to understand the data gathered by sensors on implements in the fields, to have a competitive chance in the industry. Every individual has experienced the effects of the change that IT has brought to our lives. And those who embrace the change, will excel.
References
Zippia. “How Fast Is Technology Advancing? [2023]: Growing, Evolving, And Accelerating At Exponential Rates” Zippia.com. Jan. 11, 2023, https://www.zippia.com/advice/how-fast-is-technology-advancing/ Accessed on 07 November 2023.
Interesting facts!