Future Ready Digest Vol. 2 No. 3 - 15th January 2025

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In this edition, we discuss 2025 Technology Trends via Accenture, SaaS is dead, what workers think about AI Agents, AI and jobs, the UK government's plan for AI, interesting research from HBR on AI and document management, AI-powered persona development, AI books for executives, the six key dimensions of a future-ready data strategy, and the growing importance of critical thinking in an echo chamber world.

Well worth a read. Accenture's 2025 Technology Vision report explores a future when AI transitions from being an automation enabler to acting autonomously, upending how enterprise tech systems are designed, used and operated;

"For decades, SaaS applications have been indispensable in powering business operations — CRM, HR, ERP systems, project management tools, and collaborative workspaces have all built their dominance on one fundamental premise: they’re essentially CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Delete) databases with business logic layered on top. But in the AI era......the business logic is all going to AI agents. As intelligent orchestrators, AI Agents will integrate seamlessly across multiple SaaS platforms, reducing these apps to their barebones function as databases."

A note of caution regarding Nadella's vision above.

"Workers found interacting with the AI assistant was an additional task to manage, and its multiple interaction channels could be overwhelming. The effort and time needed to interact with or research these tools to improve them often felt counterproductive as it took time away from actual work."

I still don't see any attempt to develop a labour market strategy that is fit for purpose in an AI world. With the rapid approach of Agentic AI, we may face a bleak future in terms of jobs and employment.

The long-awaited AI Opportunities Action Plan from the UK Government has just been made available. It was obvious that some smartxxx would use Gen AI to evaluate the document critically, so here goes.

Significant findings in this very detailed case study published in the Harvard Business Review.

"Applying AI to these tasks turned out to be time- and effort-intensive, and the start-up costs were enormous. We expected that applying AI would be similar to other IT implementation projects, but it proved to be much more complex. The technology issues turned out to be simpler than understanding the business context. In the end, the effort did pay off in the form of improved productivity, although, as we will describe, fancy AI alone was not the answer.

I fully agree with this paper from CMS and have already used the approach on several projects. Very useful indeed. AI-powered persona development.

No excuses now for not getting up to speed. A growing tsunami of AI Books for Executives.

The six key dimensions of a future-ready Data Strategy. Data Governance, Organization & People, Data Processes, Data Domains, Tools & Technologies, and Monitoring & KPIs.

It's worth a read. The importance of critical thinking in a world dominated by social media echo chambers.

The previous Future Ready Digest - In this edition: Billionaires take over the world, going backwards to a caveman mentality, AI Agents will enter the workforce this year, Microsoft is spending $80bn on data centres, pivoting the business model at Real Madrid, the need to speak up, and AI Agents—the changing customer service landscape. As always, comments and feedback are very welcome.

As always, comments and feedback are very welcome.

Take care.

Jim H