Trends Identified

Putting customers at the centre of innovation
CEOs are placing a higher premium on innovation today. Since 2007, business leaders have consistently reported that their single best opportunity for growth lay in better penetration of their existing markets. Now they’re just as likely to focus on the innovation needed for new products and services (see Figure 5). It’s high on the agenda in virtually all industries, including industrial sectors such as metals, chemicals and manufacturing.
2011
14th Annual global CEO Survey
PWC
Creating new value in new ways through digital transformation
CEOs no longer question the need to embrace technology at the core of their business in order to create value for customers. Beyond a shadow of a doubt, digital technologies have revolutionised how customers perceive value. Creating the personalised and ongoing experiences that are increasingly in demand requires a full view of the customer and all their relationships with the company. It requires an unprecedented level of customisation, responsiveness and innovation. Doing all this effectively just isn’t possible by tinkering at the edges. Companies increasingly recognise that they need to reconfigure their operating models – and perhaps their business models. And in order to do so they need to ensure that they’re not only investing in the right digital technologies, but can deploy them in a smart and effective way.
2015
18th Annual global CEO survey
PWC
Resilience to global disruptions and regional risks
CEOs report that they are less likely this year to focus on changing approaches to risk management than on other areas of priority, from strategies for talent to organisational structure. Significant defensive steps have already been taken: balance sheets have improved and cash reserves have been built. Enterprise risk is now more frequently discussed in boardrooms.
2012
15th Annual global CEO Survey
PWC
Globalisation reimagined
CEOs’ shift towards a targeted strategy signals the advance of globalisation – but it may diverge from how it’s looked in the past. Companies are not only affected by globalisation; the actions they take will shape it. And this time, the evidence shows, CEOs are going to do it a little differently.
2011
14th Annual global CEO Survey
PWC
Human+ Worker
Change the workplace or hinder the workforce Workforces are becoming human+: each individual is empowered by their skillsets and knowledge plus a new, constantly growing set of capabilities made possible through technology. Now, companies must adapt the technology strategies that successfully created this next generation workforce to support a new way of working in the postdigital age.
2019
Accenture Technology Vision 2019- The Post-Digital Era is Upon Us ARE YOU READY FOR WHAT’S NEXT?
Accenture
Climate change and resource competition
Changes in the global climate due to rising greenhouse gases will not be reversed by 2035, even if great strides are made with the implementation of political agreements to greatly reduce carbon usage in the future. As the consequences of climate change become increasingly apparent -- and natural events such as famines and water strain become linked to climate change in popular discourse -- the world is likely to see climate-related political disputes proliferate at the national and international level. Renewable energy will proliferate and become cost-competitive around the world, but will trigger instability in countries dependent on fossil fuels, many of which are in Europe’s neighbourhood.
2017
Global trends to 2035
European Strategy and Policy Analysis System (ESPAS)
US military power in 2030
Changes in the technological, political, economic and even social bases of the US could change the global order. What consequences are there for Europe?
2016
Global Trendometer - essays on medium- and long-term global trends
European Strategy and Policy Analysis System (ESPAS)
Chatbots to Play Central Role in Insurance Claims Process
Chatbots aid insurance firms, and the finance industry, to offer personalised answers, give greater automation during claims processing and reduce response times. AI and machine learning enable the insurance industry to deliver high quality levels of customer satisfaction and engagement, as well as sell better tailored products to consumers. The costs saved by chatbots compared to implementing an insurance agent operation is the highest out of all chatbot verticals. However, the overarching issue when trying to implement chatbot technology is the highly stringent regulations of the insurance space. This slows down chatbot implementation, as a case to case regulatory screening on products will need to be carried out before application of any insurance bots. However, Juniper sees 2019 as the year in which chatbots come of age in the insurance sector for the following reasons: · The insurance claims process is particularly vulnerable to disruption, as it is a process that requires significant amounts of time and manual effort to resolve. Chatbot technology allows for a significant reduction in response times to insurance claims. · The insurance industry is very data-centric; it holds large and significant sums of information which presents a strong case for the use of efficiently programmed bots to identify trends and conduct repeated related actions when presented with certain keywords, questions or phrases. · Chatbots deliver personalised responses (to common customer insurance claims made via email and/or telephone) in real-time, based on programmed algorithms; allowing greater automation throughout their processing of claims. · Chatbots have been identified by the insurance industry as useful in helping to deliver high quality levels of customer engagement and satisfaction via real time engagement with customers while processing their insurance claims. Already, leading peer-to-peer Insurtech start-up, Lemonade, has leveraged chatbots for account openings and claims since its launch in 2017, reaching a user base of 70,000 in just one year of launch. Chatbots have helped it cut down lengthy paperwork and great numbers of unhappy customers, who had to wait months before having their insurance claims investigated. Related Research: Chatbots: Banking, eCommerce, Retail & Healthcare 2018-2023
2019
Top Tech trends 2019
Juniper Research
There is a global price on carbon
China took the lead in 2017 with a market for trading the right to emit a tonne of CO2, setting the world on a path towards a single carbon price and a powerful incentive to ditch fossil fuels, predicts Jane Burston, Head of Climate and Environment at the UK’s National Physical Laboratory. Europe, meanwhile, found itself at the centre of the trade in cheap, efficient solar panels, as prices for renewables fell sharply.
2016
Eight predictions for 2030
World Economic Forum (WEF)
China's rise to as a technological superpower
China’s capacity and ambitions for research and development (R&D) have grown considerably over recent years. China’s assets range from national science programmes and sustained R&D investments, to its large cohorts of scientists and huge domestic market. These have helped China catch up technologically, and even take the lead in some areas. Even though it still lags traditional R&D powerhouses in some areas, the technological centre of gravity could shift east in time, with China becoming more dominant in global R&D.
2017
Foresigth
Singapore, The Centre for Strategic Futures