How Emerging Technologies will Change Work and Society

[Music]

so in the last two years as a result of

the pandemic many of us have spent lots

of time working or studying from home

which we would not otherwise have done

now imagine if we had this pandemic in

2010 the average internet speed was

enough for about one hd video stream and

not much else

office technology typically consisted of

landline calls and emails and the data

and information for organizations to run

was typically held in servers on premise

which meant the only way to do your job

was to go to the office

fast forward to today

and the average internet speed is 20

times faster most organizations use

cloud providers which means information

can be accessed instantly

and remotely

so looking back 10 20 years ago for me

and many others

working from home would not have been

productive or even possible

in the us amongst people who could work

from home in 2020 71 of people did so

could they have done 15 years ago

i don’t think so

without technological innovation to hit

the global economy would have been far

worse

than the 4.4 contraction we suffered in

2020 which was the worst since the great

depression of the 1930s

so what enabled us to rapidly shift to

work from home

what fast connectivity virtual working

and cloud infrastructure

so all of these men we could access what

we needed and interact remotely

these technological advances have made

human life more resilient and

sustainable

even in the face of a major global

pandemic

so now let’s look at further into the

future

and think about what this idea of the

changing workplace really means

what’s the impact of other emerging

technologies on where we work

live and what are the other impacts for

society

so

increasing internet connection speeds

has enabled many of us to work

productively from home

but it’s the availability and location

of that connectivity that dictates where

you work and therefore live

so currently you’re probably restricted

to

living and working in locations where

you have good wired broadband internet

connectivity

so but what if you could get great

connectivity anywhere

so 5g now means that we can get high

speed over over the internet

average cellular speeds have increased

with each generation with 5g we can now

get speeds of over 100 megabits per

second

that’s enough for multiple 4k video

streams it’s comparable to most

broadband internet providers

so there is a catch however with 5g

typically has a shorter range which

means we need a large number of ground

stations to actually

put it to use

so what can fill this connectivity gap

and give us access to the internet even

harder to reach locations

so this is where space technology comes

in

so a number of organizations are now

building satellite constellations in

space that can give us access to

high-speed internet

all you need to connect is a satellite

dish and to point it at the sky

the best known of these is starling from

spacex which has put 42 000 satellites

into low earth orbit

this has the potential to be to produce

speeds of up to one gigabit per second

so this can connect

hard to reach rural locations in

communities where it’s too expensive and

time consuming to lay down fiber cable

or put up 5g base stations

so today 47 of the world’s population

doesn’t have access to the internet

in the us alone 60 million people

don’t have access to broadband internet

speeds

satellite internet can connect many of

these people

you could be in a remote mountain hub or

a boat in the middle of the ocean and

still access high-speed internet

so as we’ve seen during the pandemic

it’s hard to replicate in-person human

interaction presence collaboration

so the metaverse has the power to change

that you might have heard of this as the

latest buzzword in technology

a lot of the big technology firms are

now investing huge amounts in the

metaverse

it’s been described as the next

generation of the internet or web 3.0

but what does it mean

so the metaverse is the convergence of

social platforms augmented in virtual

reality and blockchain technology

it’s a virtual space that allows people

to interact

in a more immersive way where the

physical and virtual worlds converge

for example it could be a virtual

environment where you have an avatar

representing yourself

so one great example of the metaverse is

gaming games such as fortnite and robot

roblox

fortnite has

integrated social events players can

attend concerts live with their with

their avatars

in these interactive worlds you can buy

and sell land digital merchandise hang

out with friends customize your look

much the same way as you can in the

physical world

so what this means for work is that we

can create virtual collaborative

environments that allowed us allow us to

interact in immersive ways

using virtual reality and to feel a

sense of being physically physically

present in a space

this is ideal for

meetings learning networking and

collaboration

so could the office of the future be

entirely virtual

well our children of today the office

workers of the future are growing up

with part of these virtual experiences

so not only is the technology advances

but as these new generations enter the

workforce will see increased adoption of

the metal verse for work

so what does it mean for where you live

you don’t have to go to an office

so say today like me you work at london

bridge

this map

shows the

90-minute commute time from where you

need to get to work

so now let’s change our assumptions

now with these new technologies let’s

assume you can connect anywhere in the

world and you can work within three

hours by time zone

that means you can work anywhere in

europe africa most of the middle east

even parts of south america

that’s one third of the land mass of the

world and a bunch of ocean as well

anywhere you have power you can now

connect and work

so what does that mean for the cost of

living

well the biggest expenditure is

typically accommodation

so you don’t have to work and live

anymore in expensive locations like

san francisco new york and london

what about cape town lisbon or milan

those locations are 50 to 80

cheaper

what if it doesn’t matter when you get

work done what about auckland and new

zealand

so when thinking about work virtual

working we’re no longer tied to certain

locations or even cities

you can choose to live in a cheaper

location by reducing your cost of living

have a better quality of life

so these converging technologies will

further enable remote working allowing

you to work and live anywhere

but what does this mean for job

opportunities

so you’re no longer confined to working

for organizations with offices where you

can physically commute to

you can work and be connected anywhere

in the world

you can have rich collaborative

experiences

virtually with colleagues which are only

going to get better over time

so not only can you work from anywhere

but any job can also come to you

you can work for organizations based

anywhere in the world

you can access new and interesting

opportunities that you couldn’t

previously

and for organizations they can now

access global talent pools where

previously they could only employ people

either within a commutable radius or

willing to relocate

so a german car company that needs to

hire more software developers but can’t

find enough in germany

they can now employ people remotely in

new zealand

or a technology firm in silicon valley

that can’t attract talent because the

cost of living is too high

now they can employ people in remote

minnesota

so why will all organizations shift to

adopting remote and virtual working

because what we’re seeing now is

employees are demanding it which means

the best employees will go to the

organizations that provide it

so other organizations will have to

follow

so what are the other positive impacts

for society of this work from anywhere

future

let’s think about your personal health

and well-being

so commuting is physically bad for you

you sit down a lot can be stressful

you’re less active

can give rise to obesity and back

problems

but freeing up that time every day it

can be spent with family

perhaps on childcare or exercise keeping

fit taking care of your mental

well-being

you can now live closer to nature and

areas of natural beauty which has been

shown to have a large positive impact on

mental wellbeing

so and one challenge for many people

starting their careers perhaps like you

guys here

is that

the cost of buying a property can now be

many multiples of income

the ability to live anywhere can

dramatically increase the financial

well-being for this kind of demographic

now let’s think about diversity and

inclusion

now in many countries the burden of

early early years child care falls

disproportionately on young women

others may have disabilities that makes

travel or relocation more difficult

or perhaps people need to look after

sick or elderly relatives this is where

a virtual working world can promote a

more equal society

if we can remove the dependency of both

working time

and place

then people can access more

opportunities with more organizations in

more locations

any buyers based on an individual’s

personal

commitment

lifestyle are removed

not only is diversity good because it’s

a good thing for society

companies with diverse management teams

on average have 20 percent higher

revenues

they just perform better

so lastly what does it mean for climate

change in the environment in the world

of remote working in the virtual office

the commute is not needed at all

virtual remind environments reduce the

need for travel altogether long-haul

business travel in particular has a

large negative impact on the environment

effective and collaborative remote

working can massively reduce carbon

emissions as we’ve less need to move our

physical cells and instead can teleport

our virtual selves anywhere in the world

so what industries are likely to be

disrupted by the shift of virtual

working in the

well with retail we saw a shift in value

from traditional retailers in the high

street to online marketplaces like

amazon and ebay

the value of corporate real estate

globally is 33 trillion dollars

so for just a small portion of this

value to transfer to the technology

companies building the metaverse it’s

likely to be the biggest company in the

world

so the same is true for other industries

like higher energy education

learning in higher education can be

transferred to entirely virtual worlds

delivering new kinds of learning

experiences

not restricted by physical space and

capacity much cheaper than today

therefore also making it more accessible

so i think this future is exciting for a

long time our health well-being cost of

living equality in the environment are

all tied to when how

and where we work

the convergence of technologies

5g

satellite internet the metaverse cloud

computing all these taken together

meaning we’re heading for a virtual

workplace

it may not be fully virtual today and in

the interim hybrid where a combination

of office and home

are used depending on the type of work

that needs to get done

but the direction of travel seems clear

and if that’s towards a better more

equal healthy and environmentally

conscious world

then that’s a good

[Applause]

you