Loss Prevention Research Council Weekly Series - Episode 80 - Robots Coming and Forrester 2022 Tech Predictions
With Dr. Read Hayes, Tony D'Onofrio, and Tom Meehan
Companies Order Record Number of Robots Amid Labor Shortage
https://www.wsj.com/articles/companies-order-record-number-of-robots-amid-labor-shortage-11636669766
Interesting data on Robots in the Wall Street Journal earlier this week.
Robotics orders by North American companies are on track for their biggest year.
Total robotics sales for the first nine months of the year were $1.48 billion, topping a previous record of $1.47 billion set over the same period in 2017. Sales rose from $1.09 billion in the first nine months of last year.
Companies ordered nearly 29,000 robotics units in the first nine months of the year.
Companies ordered 9,928 robots in the third quarter, and 6,302 of those were from nonautomotive industries. The growth in nonautomotive orders was driven by the metals industry, which saw year-over-year growth nearly triple. Behind metals was the food and consumer goods industry, with growth of 40%; and semiconductors, electronics and photonics, with growth of 26%.
The robots are indeed coming and they will probably show up more in a store near you.
What Next? 22 Emerging Technologies to Watch in 2022
https://www.economist.com/the-world-ahead/2021/11/08/what-next-22-emerging-technologies-to-watch-in-2022
From the Economist, here is a quick list of the 22 emerging technologies to watch in 2022
Solar Geoengineering, New generation heat pumps, Hydrogen powered plans, Direct air capture, Vertical Farming, Container ships with sails, VR workouts. Vaccines for HIV and malaria, 3-D Printed bone implants, Flying electric taxis, Space tourism, Delivery drones, Quieter supersonic airplanes, 3-D printed homes, Sleep tech, Personalized nutrition, Wearable health trackers, The metaverse, Quantum computing, Virtual influencers, Brain interfaces, Artificial meat and Fish
Interesting list. Some of these have been around for a while but they are moving to new generations. Interesting that Facebook just selected Meta as their new company name with their focus on the metaverse and this was a trend listed here.
Forrester Predictions 2022
https://www.forrester.com/predictions/
From Forrester here is a summary of my favorite of their predictions for 2022.
Disruption has ensued since the dawn of the digital era — but it exploded in intensity and breadth starting in 2020.
Trends on cloud evolution
You can’t always get what you want — even when you’re a $1.8 trillion hyperscaler. Back in 2019, Google reportedly aimed to become a top-two cloud provider by 2023 or abandon the market altogether. But after years of serious investment and vast service rollouts to try to catch and outstrip Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure, Google will fall short.
Core cloud infrastructure is interchangeable, so cloud service providers will battle over industry clouds. The cloud achieved its original rapid adoption because it was so generic. Commoditization which means means lower revenue for cloud service providers is coming in 2022 for industry specific solutions.
The era of cloud nationalism will emerge. Regulators and government officials in Washington and Beijing are putting pressure on their respective big tech companies to align with a US-China competition for global, economic, and political influence.
On Artificial Intelligence
- Embedded AI: Start paddling now — one in five organizations will double down on “AI inside”.
- Responsible AI: Don’t overlook small waves — the market for responsible AI solutions will double.
- Creative AI: Don’t be afraid to test new waters — creative AI systems will win dozens of patents.
On more automation
The COVID-19 pandemic, while winding down, has permanently changed the course of business for many firms and industries. Among those changes, it forced enterprises to adopt more sophisticated automation programs that have the ability to reshuffle priorities on a dime by using the latest analytics.
The repercussions of this shift are profound. In 2022, Forrester predicts that existing process improvement platforms will converge and be challenged by new AI-led entrants; investment to address global worker shortages will be prioritized; and to address the future head on, enterprises will embrace an automation fabric to fuel extreme innovation.
Thirty-five percent of service companies will introduce physical robot workers.
Five percent of the Fortune 500 will adopt automation fabric to fuel extreme innovation.
To reach this state, enterprises must define an automation fabric — a framework to build, orchestrate, and govern a hybrid workforce of human and digital workers — that links AI-based and traditional automation components, supported with a proactive program for innovation.
