'Human-machine interaction key for successful digital business'

Humans and machines will have to work as a cohesive workforce with 40 per cent global leaders, including those from India, rooting for administrative tasks such as scheduling meetings and data inputs to be taken over by machines, a report said on Wednesday.

According to a research by Dell Technologies in collaboration with Britain-based market researcher Vanson Bourne, 42 per cent Indian leaders believe that inventory management as a task is most likely to be outsourced to machines by 2030.

"In spite of the multiple challenges faced by businesses to go digital, leaders are united in the belief that they need to transform," Rajesh Janey, Managing Director and President, India Enterprise, Dell EMC, said in a statement.

Despite the hurdles that businesses face and the inexorable race to move everything online and make available in real-time, 50 per cent of them already believe that they are catering to the evolving needs of their customers, with the help of engaging and customised offerings.

"It is encouraging to see how Indian leaders believe strongly in the importance of providing customer experiences which are not only holistic, but also engaging. It is important for enterprises to prepare for the future, focusing on workforce, security and IT transformation, in order to stay ahead," Janey added.

A whopping 66 per cent business leaders think that their organisations currently or will in five years struggle to offer equal opportunities across its different generations of workers depending upon varied digital skill-sets and mind-sets.

As far as cyber security and privacy is concerned, businesses are split on whether the future represents an opportunity or a threat.

Nearly 56 per cent businesses believe cyber security is a threat that imposes far reaching implications on the business.

"Fifty five per cent of them felt that greater data capture could infringe upon the public's right to privacy, 57 per cent were calling for clear protocols in the event that autonomous machines fail and 56 per cent said computers would need to decipher between good and bad commands," the research said.

Meanwhile, Indian businesses were confident of operating a successful digital business in 2030. However, they feel the main barriers to becoming a successful digital business in 2030 and beyond are data privacy and cyber security concerns (47 per cent) and lack of budget and resources (36 per cent).

Lack of senior support and sponsorship (36 per cent), lack of right skills/competencies (36 per cent), lack of employee buy-in (30 per cent) and lack of coherent digital strategy and vision (29 per cent) were other factors that could hinder the digital transformation of enterprises.

To fulfil the promise of digital change, 56 per cent of businesses speculate that schools will need to teach how to learn rather than what to learn to prepare students for jobs that do not exist yet.

--IANS

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