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