Role of Digital Technologies in Various Sectors of the Economy
It is the Covid-19 pandemic that has led to the widespread utilisation and adaptation of digital technologies as a result of the norms of social distancing and lockdowns taking place worldwide. It is within a span of a few months that businesses and companies in different sectors have changed for the better or for the worse. Employees and organisations all over the world have become adjusted to a new way of working (Piccialli et al. 2021). A surge in digitalization has made several organisations choose work-from-home facilities and under this situation, technological implications such as blockchain technology play an important role in entailing research on various designs and regulations. Nowadays, various technologies of digital transformation such as cloud, blockchain, artificial intelligence and machine learning comprise a massive portion of what is being utilized by various organisations as a major part of the transformational effort they are putting in. Information technology, precisely the internet services are bound to be the pivotal point in a scenario after the pandemic (Abuselidze and Mamaladze 2021). This is because during the outbreak of the pandemic, organisations and individuals have come up with new and innovative ideas that will drive the surge which is in use these days. The work culture and working practices have changed quite a lot after the occurrence of this pandemic. The purpose of this essay is to discuss the impacts which artificial intelligence and other digital technologies have posed on work, practices of work and the working culture prevailing in different organisations.
Artificial intelligence has been long used all over the globe for understanding the consequences of the infective disease in various sectors of the economy. Various workplaces have been relying upon systems that are relied upon machine learning for engineering delivery of products at a time when the supply chain was disrupted completely (Abideen et al. 2021). The policy-makers have also resorted to technologies implementing artificial intelligence and machine learning as they promised to strengthen the quality of services in the remote areas as well on the grounds of health, education and other emergency services. Until the outbreak of the pandemic, people were very much fearful about the disadvantages of artificial intelligence being implemented in society that could lead to joblessness (Abuselidze and Mamaladze 2021). However, after the pandemic, as people got accustomed to a “new normal”, it was the same technological innovations that led to the inculcation of interest in the labour markets when various companies had to keep on operations running while having adopted the measures of social distancing (Sharifi, Ahmadi and Ala 2021). However, the positive effect of reinforcement may always not turn out to be true. For example, industries such as leisure, retail or hospitality are highly dependent upon the interpersonal skills of workers and they barely can be replaced by any kind of AI automation.
Some research revealed that artificial intelligence is the capacity of a machine to decode and comprehend inputs in an intelligent system. Some people believe that it is a system that manages information in the model of business. Digital data and information are new concepts of technology today similar to oil resources (Haleem and Javaid 2019). The more research is conducted into these fields, the more or better the improvement of the solutions to various global problems. Moreover, data, ideas and information on artificial intelligence and other digital technologies have led to affecting the decisions of the investors all over the world, which in turn serves as an opportunity for monetizing data. Talking of a global level, such utilisations has led to an increase in the GDP of the world over a decade.
AI and Remote Work
In the era of Covid-19 and even after that, technologies and digital technologies have provided assistance in rendering remote education, a distancing system of monitoring, and sending information from places that are distant to health bases. It is with the help of digital technologies that proper isolation of patients infected with Covid-19 can be facilitated, which in turn brings down the risk of mortality and enhance the production of drugs along with treatment and care (Javaid et al. 2020). As healthcare workers have become acquainted with the same, it would be easier for people to tackle similar situations in future, if they arise. From recent studies in the segment of healthcare, it has been found that machine learning and artificial intelligence are very much promising and can be relied upon in comparison to human beings. However, this does not intend to eliminate human beings from the cycle of interactions in the pharmaceutical and health care industry but it certainly has provided some accurate decisions to the doctors (Khan et al. 2021). Artificial intelligence and other digital technologies have also been responsible for preventing Covid-19 from aggravating further. This is because physicians make use of the virtual reality platform for reducing the risks of the disease through the creation of a completely stress-free environment while training medical staff.
Digitization along with artificial intelligence has given rise to the fourth industrial revolution. This revolution is changing the way every sector of work is functioning. In the fight against covid-19, the concept of digitization has become one of the basic needs (Piccialli et al. 2021). It plays a very unprecedented role in maintaining the daily lives of the people. The economic and social activities along with the recovery of business and several business activities have also been facilitated by digitization post Covid-19. The outbreak of the pandemic had a major impact on the education system which is still not recovered completely. This crisis has substantially stimulated the need for remote digital education (Holmes, Bialik and Fadel 2019). The digital transformation from books to using and learning from PDFs, from learning in classrooms to learning in online conference platforms has been totally driven by artificial intelligence and this entire thing had to be adopted by not only students but also teachers. Thus, Covid-19 has boosted the use of online education which has represented a chance for the introduction of advanced technological utilisations such as text-to-speech and chatbots in schools and colleges (Das et al. 2021). With the help of intelligent tutoring systems, the process of rendering and receiving for teachers and students respectively has become very convenient as this offers some extent of personalised learning. With the help of adaptive systems of tutoring, teachers can make use of content that is web-based along with gaming content (Pantelimon et al. 2021). This makes learning attractive and the performance of students improves. Hence, teachers can efficiently improve the quality of education being rendered to students.
Talking of the retail sector, it has been increasingly evident and clear that the trends and transformations which have emerged nowadays are likely to stay in action and this alteration in the retail sector is being completely driven by digital technologies and artificial intelligence (Salvietti et al. 2022). The trend of online shopping increased manifold during the pandemic and even after it has subsided, this has not changed. Retailers nowadays are using artificial intelligence throughout the management of supply chains and logistics (Guha et al. 2021). It involves automation of deliveries, managing and monitoring of deliveries and making accurate forecasting of the upcoming condition of the market. Moreover, the logistics partners are looking for ways to increase the value of faster delivery for their customers. For example, post pandemic, Amazon has started using an AI technology by which they are able to anticipate the likely proneness of a customer for buying a certain product. With the help of its anticipatory process of shipping the particular product is transferred to a warehouse that is near to the location of the customer ahead of time. This enables the customer to get an absolutely quick delivery after placing the order. With the help of computer vision technology, Amazon tracks the location of a particular product for creating a delivery route that is optimal and chooses a flexible delivery or courier service for the same.
AI and Investors
The banking or the finance sector has also benefitted to a great extent due to the implementation of artificial intelligence during the Covid-19 pandemic. Nowadays, in the post Covid-19 world of business, the banks are able to operate with a lot of ease and efficiency as a result of the various transformation of technology and the use of artificial intelligence. Nowadays, banks and other financial companies mostly rely on the online transfer of money rather than making cash transactions or depositing the same in the bank or withdrawing it from the bank while physically commuting to the bank (Wu, D.D. and Olson 2020). This is not only time saving but also enables the avoidance of human errors and biases in financial transactions. In the post Covid-19 world, banks are trying to reach out to the customers to provide them services that cater to every requirement of them while the customers are sitting back at home. Many banks and finance companies have implemented chatbots that provide real-time customer service as well as information purposes, thus leveraging the presence of the customers on the platform chat that is major. Many banks have implemented virtual assistants who can guide customers through online transactions while they are at their homes and office and not having to travel to banks physically.
The change or the transformation to the adaptation of various implementations of artificial intelligence or other digital technologies by various work sectors can be well-explained by the ADKAR model of change management (Eltervå and Ellingsen 2021). This model can be used in different organisations and their management so that they can easily find out different gaps in the process of adapting to the change and accordingly render effective training to the concerned employees so that they can adapt to the change quite effectively. The ADKAR model lays emphasis on various goals that are business-oriented. It is also very significant in supporting employees so that they can go through the process of change quite conveniently (Hizir 2021). During the outbreak of the pandemic, due to worldwide lockdown organisations changed their working practice to the work-from-home pattern. As the main protocol was to maintain social distancing, employees did not have to commute to offices physically. Artificial intelligence and technological innovations had a big role to play under this scenario. Companies had to conduct online meetings on a regular basis to coordinate work via platforms such as Microsoft Teams, Zoom meetings, Google Meet and several other platforms.
Moreover, different kinds of software were required to carry out work properly without hindrance. However, currently when the impact of Covid-19 has subsided to some extent, it has been found that companies have shifted to a hybrid model of work where employees have to commute to the office on a rostered basis while on other days they are working from home. Even this system of work will require the implementation of artificial intelligence and technological utilization such as stable internet connection, working laptops and computers, software and other essential materials that utilize the internet (AM et al. 2020). Organisations looking to adapt to changes related to work-from-anywhere or hybrid model can undertake the processes such as being aware of the needs and changes required (shifting to the reliance on artificial intelligence and technology), being desirable to be an active part of the change of adapting and implementing the applications of AI, attaining knowledge on how to embrace the changes and applying them in work practices, having the ability to incorporate changes by utilizing applications of digital technology on a regular basis and reinforcing the same so that it can be implemented in future as well as for better.
AI and Healthcare
Another model that can be referred to while explaining the impact of artificial intelligence on working practices post Covid-19 is the growing diffusion of digital technologies in the system of production of companies which leads to a very new paradigm of the industry. This model is named Industry 4.0 which has led to immense disruptive changes in the ways by which the companies are framing their production and creating value (Bellantuono et al. 2021). Organisations that are willing to grab the opportunities of this model should bring about innovation in the various processes of operations and business models in the world after Covid-19. Artificial intelligence delves into the entire industry 4.0 ecosystem (Narayanamurthy and Tortorella 2021). This is not only confined to the floor of production. One of the greatest examples is to make use of AI algorithms for optimizing the supply chain of manufacturing and operations which helps them to respond better while anticipating and embracing the changes in the market.
Parallel trends of increasing computational powers with digitally intermediated work along with advancements in natural language are enhancing development in the analytics of people. Earlier the organisations were mostly limited to human judgement and surveys while presently after the pandemic situation, digital technologies have implemented access to granular data for informing the design of organizational designs, the process of hiring as well as managerial judgement. All these aspects can have a meaningful impact on the culture (Lahiri Chavan 2021). As there is the proliferation of data in the workplace along with AI enabled algorithms, various researchers have identified some areas of concern and resistance such as the fear of tightening control of employers from workers that calls for careful consideration from leadership (Malhotra 2021). Theories of organizational culture can be applied to understand this change. It is a system of shared assumptions along with beliefs and values which govern the way people behave in organisations.
The pandemic of the corona virus has upended companies by forcing them rapidly to give away the fundamental assumption of non-premise along with face-to-face work. Some companies will seize the same opportunities for re-evaluating and intentionally redesigning the teams and cultures which have sometimes historically evolved at a slow pace or stagnant. However, studies have shown that around 65% of executives have the notion that employees should commute to the offices for at least three days a week for maintaining a company culture that is distinct (HAI Corporate Members Program 2022). To foster a specifically flexible environment of work, development, mentoring and integration as well as establishing human connection might require some significant rethinking that might leverage the virtual as well as physical spaces. Artificial intelligence is bestowing a new age in understanding as well as the ability to modelling culture. It has already resulted in revolutionizing business ranging from green lighting of movies using algorithms to facilitating management of corporate cultures.
Conclusion
It can be concluded that the occurrence of the pandemic has resulted in a world-wide transformation in the field of work and work culture in terms of adaptation of artificial intelligence and other digital technologies. Over the pandemic situation, automation has been reinforced in the world of business and operations through various policies framed by policy-makers. This has given growth to logistics and supply chain management which was completely disrupted during the outbreak of the pandemic. Not only logistics and supply chain management, but the healthcare, education, the financial and retail sector has been impacted on a very positive note with a lot of growth due to the advent of artificial intelligence. The ADKAR model has been used for explaining the transformation and the adaptation that organisations have undertaken toward digital technologies and artificial intelligence.
The Fourth Industrial Revolution and Digitization
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