We're In It - The Fourth Revolution - Robots, AI, AR? Read Latest Predictions

Mankind has experienced 3 industrial revolutions to date: the agricultural revolution, the industrial revolution, and the information revolution.

We are have now entered the fourth revolution: the Automation Revolution.

By 2020, 80 percent of consumer interactions will take place without a human (Source:  Gartner).

It’s hard to ignore the speed at which AI has seeped into nearly every industry and just yesterday morning, Radio 4's Today programme discussed the fear of loss of jobs, including in the legal world with talk of Judges being computerised. Computers in the future making decisions over human lives? There's a topic for introspection.

I live in a conservation area in a UK town centre, which means no parking. We've well serviced by trains to London but for 5 years now I've regularly used a local car-hire company to get around the country. They pick you up at the door and drop you back afterwards. It's such great service. The point I want to make here however, is that I have been doing this for the past 5 years and every time I arrive at the office to 'do the paperwork', we have the same conversation. It goes like this:

"Good morning Ms Floyd (Where are you off to today? Can I see your drivers licence please? You have your own insurance - right? I see you booked and paid online. Can I have your credit card please - we charge you ￡200 excess which will be refunded to you on return. Will you sign here please and we'll go and look around the car? Will you sign here again please. Have a great trip Ms Floyd"

For a year or two what passes through my thoughts as this exchange is taking place is that one of these days in the not too distant future, I'm going to arrive and find a robot doing this job. It's so autonomous. Oh of course one would miss the human touch/the smile etc but seriously, it's all so repetitive. I've watched the whole thing very carefully. There is nothing here that a robot couldn't do effectively. Even smile can be programmed in!

Back in January of this year, I wrote 'The Robots are coming. The Robots are coming'; about Automation, AI, AR. Here we are in August 2018 just 8 months on. The time is getting closer and closer; 'human replacement' is now being, and will increasingly be filtered into our lives.

Indeed it is interesting to read this latest article by Peter Franklin at Unherd - his take on the fourth revolution in which we are now ensconced.

Obviously, there’s a lot of excitement around AI (artificial intelligence) – which promises a whole sequence of revolutionary developments. However, when it comes to the  next big thing,  Benedict Evans makes a strong case for AR ( augmented reality), suggesting that the stage at which AR is now, is equivalent to where multitouch was in the run-up to the 2007 launch of its breakthrough commercial product – the Apple iPhone.  

A decade on from 2007... eeek, look where we are.  Read Peter's article here and watch this space.

Strategic Adviser to Businesses and Causes in all things Marketing, Digital Marketing, related Business Growth and Social Media Marketing, Elizabeth J Floyd (aka on Twitter as Lizzie J Floyd) is based in Hertfordshire and London UK. A dual national, she was born, raised in Perth, Western Australia.

Included in her satchel of expertise are Board and Chair roles; she's formed and grown two businesses - selling one, and today her Strategic Consultancy offerings include Business Growth Strategy incorporating Marketing & Digital and Social Media Planning, Roll-Out, Training, Mentoring as well as Speaking engagements.

Thriving on working with great clients across a range of industry sectors at home and abroad, Elizabeth is passionate about continual learning; ekeing out trends, devising and delivering business and marketing strategic and tactical solutions.

Connect/follow : LinkedIn | Twitter @LizzieJFloyd