Nanorobots in your brain: The Roaring 20s!

Last year, I stood on the keynote stage at IPExpo and discussed some of the future business opportunities available, especially if you are able to use your data wherever it lives within your organisation.

I talked about what else may lie ahead. In particular, one of Ray Kurzweil’s tech predictions (who, with a success rate of 86% across 147 tech predictions - seems to be a pretty safe bet!). I’ll reiterate it again here:

“By 2030s, humans will be able to inject nanorobots into their neocortex, and be able to offload cognitive workloads to the cloud.” 

Recap: Nanorobots. Your brain, but in the cloud. In 10 years!

The pace of innovation and change is incredible and I’m guessing you have probably reviewed a number of “Top 10 predictions for 2020”. Some of these are great, but leave little room for organisations to think and plan how they might get ready to exploit them. So let’s look longer, and be a whole lot bolder and approach the future tech landscape from a business perspective. 

So here’s my take on the top 3 areas for focus for cutting edge organisations in the roaring 20s:

Systems Ethics

Already, we’re seeing serious bias failures across the digital domain. By the end of the 20s in the UK, there will need to be a new Data Ethics and Inclusion Act or similar which will upgrade the current Equality Act. 

Machine Learning across large datasets will become far more democratised and will be taught in junior schools. With 5G already in the rear view mirror, your ability to use data and apply machine learning and automation safely at huge speeds (6G may herald 1TB/s!) and to do so safely will require a systems ethics pillar throughout your business. It could be enforceable by law, so governance across all workstreams within your organisation will be key. 

Choosing the Right Talent

Your workforce will need to be even more malleable than it is today. You’ll need to react even quicker to market forces and the technologies available. Faster feedback loops will be needed from customers to your people, and change will be an increasingly-steep rock climb. So: you’ll need to attract the most resilient people. Test candidates for their ability to rapidly exploit change, seek those get back up quickest when knocked down and hire those who don’t necessarily follow the process.

Customer Centricity

The 20s is the decade of the customer. Every department in the company (especially the ones that don’t interact with customers) will need to put the customer even further forward than they do already. Customers will walk away quicker than they do now; subscribing power will be everything. Challenge each department to measure themselves on at least one customer metric. Marketing should be looking for the best potential customers, not just the most leads. If you’re making products, make them easier to use and easier on the eye than everyone else.

In sum, in the roaring 20s, I’d advise you to:

1. Ensure you have a systems ethics pillar throughout your organisation.
2. Hire for resilience.
3. Ensure there’s a customer metric in every department.