Digital Transformation can help any business to leverage AI and digital technologies to optimise operations, improve customer experience, and drive growth. Digital technologies are radically changing all sectors of the economy. Applying and adopting digital technologies and utilising digital skills are no longer optional actions for businesses but critical survival factors.
The term digital transformation includes all the changes a company adopts to benefit from the advantages of the internet, digital media, and new technologies. It is an ongoing process that creates business opportunities but requires training and infrastructure.
Digital transformation is a crucial component of an overall business transformation strategy. While it is not the only factor, it is critical to the success or failure of any transformation effort. The right technologies – combined with people, processes, and operations – enable organisations to adapt quickly to disruptions and/or opportunities, meet new and evolving customer needs, and drive future growth and innovation, often in unexpected ways.
Key Technologies of Digital Transformation
According to the European Commission’s DESI, the key digital transformation technologies are:
Social media
Mobile technology services
Cloud technologies
Data analysis
Internet of Things
Robotics and automation
3D printing
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Cybersecurity
New markets
Digital technologies are creating new markets and unprecedented opportunities for businesses. They open new ways for them to integrate the needs and preferences of their customers in their development and production processes. They also improve quality and avoid errors during the production process, and enhance transparency and flexibility in all company actions.
Businesses that want to take full advantage of the opportunities of digital transformation need to acquire relevant knowledge and skills at all levels. Thus, they can shape a working environment familiar with digital reality and the opportunities it offers. Only a few companies in Europe are fully exploiting the opportunities of digital transformation. Most of them encounter obstacles in the adoption of new technologies.
The weakness is mainly attributed to the lack of relevant skills:
More than 50% of companies fail to offer structured training, according to a PwC survey. 35% of the workforce in Europe lags in digital skills, according to the European Commission’s annual survey on the digital performance of EU member states. Even where businesses are providing workers with digital tools, important emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence are being ignored.
Shortcomings and opportunities
A key inhibiting factor in the digital transformation of small businesses is the lack of technical skills and digital infrastructure. There are many additional technology opportunities that businesses can use, such as cross-border e-commerce, cloud services, and automation.
Digital transformation is not a strategic challenge. Business strategy and operating model must transform faster to maximize the benefits of cutting-edge technologies. One of the most important benefits of digital transformation for a business is to improve its productivity.
This is because the business being transformed will be able to get rid of many difficult and time-consuming manual tasks, which will be automated due to digitization. Thus, their execution time will be significantly reduced and the business will become more productive.
An essential characteristic of digital transformation is more complete, accurate, and efficient data collection. In the past, the business may have had all its data scattered across different and disconnected platforms or have yet to collect any data.
However, this changes decisively with its digital transformation, as it will become possible to receive centralised and – in every respect – improved data and better processing. Another significant benefit of digital transformation for businesses is that it contributes to more effective collaboration and communication between the various departments of a business. The company’s internal communications digitisation will make it more flexible, fast, and efficient.
Supercharge Digital Transformation
Digital Transformation in the age of AI was among the main discussion topics at Dublin Tech Summit. In a panel discussion, Alfredo Soria, Darryl Gibney, Meghan Chayka, Ross Spelman, and Andrew Macadam share insights on how companies can leverage AI and digital technologies to gain a stronger market position. From automation to analytics, the panel discussed real-world examples of how companies use these technologies to transform their businesses and gain a competitive edge.
