An interesting experience the other day made me stop and think about this phenomenon called “digital” that has everyone so excited.
I was driving to work and stopped at a gas station to fill-up my tank. However, when I reached for my wallet, I realized that I had left it at home. I had no cash or cards with me. I panicked. I was already running late. Neither could I drive away, nor did I have the time to leave my car and go back for my wallet! In that dark moment came inspiration. I did have my mobile! So I fired up my mobile-wallet app, scanned the QR code at the gas station, paid with a click and was on my way in a jiffy. Woohoo, “digital” to the rescue!
That set me thinking. Why was this experience so powerful? This was like having an ATM where I needed it, when I needed it! Not only that, to the vendor, it was like having a cash-register connected directly to their bank account. If the gas station had a NFC capable POS, I could have moved cash from my bank to their bank by just waving my phone! “Digital” is omnipresent. Bank accounts, health data, weather information, maps and directions, public records, music, movies, books, real-time video from across the world, a dictionary or the complete encyclopedia – you name, you have it – whenever you want it, wherever you want it. Today, it is with us through gadgets and wearables, and all around us in thousands of digitally-enabled “things”. Tomorrow, it will be within us through implantable chips. And one day, at the moment of singularity, when the boundaries between brain and chip dissolve, it will be us.
Is this just about being everywhere? No, that is just the beginning. Not only is “digital” everywhere, it is also interconnected. An internet of digitally-enabled “things” bound together in a myriad of connections, talking to each other, exchanging information, acting in collusion. And, when the light of AI and analytics is thrown on this vast pool of interconnected data and events, “digital” becomes omniscient. The Google map in my car can see the data from all other cars along my route to tell me that I am heading into a traffic-jam, immediately sifting through all other possible routes to come up with the best alternative - all this, while continuously communicating with a satellite thousands of miles up in space! If that is not a pretty good definition of “all-seeing”, tell me what is.
Now what happens when these astounding powers of digital are coupled with robotics and sensors? The results are truly magical. Scientists can effortlessly control a Mars rover millions of miles away, surgeons can conduct extremely complicated surgeries remotely, cars drive themselves and warehouses become completely automated! “Digital” is becoming omnipotent. As more things become digital, as computing power multiplies and as more and more data is collected, the possibilities of digital keep expanding.
But why now? Why did the digital curve jump the chasm only recently? To explain, let me take you back to an interesting product that I built more than fifteen years ago as part of a team at HP’s Advanced Technology Labs. We were building a banking product based on “Zero Latency Enterprise” technology. While a customer withdrew cash at the ATM, a recommendation engine would do a near-real-time analysis of the customer’s relationship history, and come back with personalized up-sell and cross-sell offers on the screen. If the customer opted-in, an email would be sent to the salesperson’s palm-pilot to initiate necessary action. This was as close to “digital” as you could get fifteen years ago. But the ecosystem that truly propels digital to its current omnipresent, omniscient and omnipotent capabilities simply did not exist in those days. Our recommendation engine did not have the insight into the customer’s online activities, social circles, loyalty and credit cards, location history, online and offline purchases, club memberships, investments, online-trading transactions – the mountain of data that is available today. Nor could we reach the customer anytime, anywhere through their smartphone to make offers at the point of purchase or to send location-aware promotions. And, AI and robotics were still in their infancy. You can see how the possibilities would be limited even a few years ago.
“Digital” has come of age today because the network effects of the Internet of Things has crossed a tipping point, compounding the impact of the technology. I am not omniscient enough to see where this new technology wave will take us, but I can definitely advise you to grab your surf-board and start riding this wave – and be prepared for a wild ride!
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