Organizations will spend around $656 billion on future-of-work technologies this year, according to a June 2021 report from the IDC. Software will see the fastest spending growth over the 2020-2024 forecast period. Where? Enterprise applications, content and collaboration, analytics and artificial intelligence, human resources applications, security and software development and deployment, according to the IDC. “Emerging technologies like artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, and augmented/virtual reality are changing how work is getting done across all industries and across the world,” Eileen Smith, program vice president of Customer Insights and Analysis for the IDC, said in the report. Companies’ workplace desires include automated decision support and virtual collaborative approaches, she added.
Ida Byrd-Hill is a futurist, economist and CEO of Automation Workz, a cybersecurity reskilling and diversity consulting firm. She is author of Invisible Talent Market, a Black Labor Economics History book. She holds an MBA from the Jack Welch Management Institute at Strayer University, with a specialization in People Management/Strategy and a BA Economics from the University of Michigan- Ann Arbor. Byrd-Hill has appeared in Associated Press, BBC, Crain’s Business Detroit, CW Street Beat, Cybercrime Magazine, Daytime NBC, Detroit News, Detroit Free Press, Essence Magazine, Good Morning America, Let It Rip, Michigan Chronicle, Model D, NPR, PBS, and X-conomy. www.autoworkz.org/diverse-lens