Infosys unveiled new research exploring global business maturity in digital transformation – comparing how businesses have fared over the course of the last year, including success factors and barriers to progress.

Legacy systems predicted as the single biggest barrier to digital transformation in 2019
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From November 3 to 23, 2018, Infosys used a blind format to conduct an online survey that attracted responses from more than 1,000 CXO and other senior-level respondents from companies with revenue upwards of US$1 Billion. Respondents represented multiple industries and hailed from Australia, China, France, Germany, India, U.K. and the U.S. To gain additional qualitative insights, phone interviews were also conducted with a few practitioners and subject matter experts.

“Understanding the distinct practices of visionary businesses is valuable for companies seeking to navigate the next step of their digital transformation journey,” explains Jeff Kavanaugh, Executive Editor at Infosys Knowledge Institute.

What can businesses expect in 2019?

Infosys found businesses can be grouped into three clusters based on their progress along the digital transformation journey, with visionaries the most advanced, followed by explorers and then watchers.

• Visionaries understand the potential of digital to completely transform their business
• Explorers commit to digital programs driven by the need to enhance customer experience
• Watchers see digital through the prism of efficiency

Interviewed executives express confidence in their companies to advance from the watcher to the explorer level without too much difficulty but feel that reaching the visionary level is much harder

What sets visionaries apart?

To more deeply understand what characterizes organizations at different stages of the transformation journey, Infosys identified 22 key digital initiatives and surveyed where companies stood on implementing each one. Companies were then assigned a Digital Maturity Index score from 0 to 100 according to their progress on pursuing and implementing these 22 key initiatives.

The research revealed that as companies advance in their journey, they begin to operate more digital initiatives at scale, with visionaries averaging 12 at scale, and having completed pilots on seven additional initiatives. Explorers average six digital initiatives at scale and have completed pilot projects for seven more. While watchers typically operate at scale on only one or two digital initiatives, with another one or two initiatives in the pilot testing phase.

Infosys Digital Radar 2019 reveals the digital transformation maturity of businesses in 2018, and what it takes to navigate the next stage
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22 digital initiative were categorized under four “buckets”

• Foundation initiatives – implemented to modernize legacy systems
• Mainstay initiatives – focused on core digital transformation elements such as automation and AI
• Customer initiatives – focused on improving the customer experience
• Forefront initiatives – focused on harnessing cutting edge technologies, such as augmented and virtual reality, drones and blockchain.

As companies advance along the digital transformation journey, they tend to focus on different buckets. Watchers concentrate on scaling up foundation initiatives. Explorers focus on a broader range of initiatives including mainstay and customer – yet are sometimes held back by a lack of progress in scaling up foundation initiatives. And visionaries bring many initiatives to scale alongside the foundation, mainstay and customer categories. Visionaries are also the only businesses making substantial progress on scaling up forefront initiatives.

To reach advanced stages of digital transformation, companies must operate key initiatives at scale and focus on a broad range of technologies
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What might hold businesses back in 2019?

When asked about what the biggest barriers to digital transformation will be in 2019, the percentage of respondents citing the ‘inability to experiment quickly’ was 22 percent and ‘insufficient budget’ was 30 percent. However, ‘legacy systems’ was at 41 percent – making it the single biggest barrier predicted for 2019.  Lack of change management capabilities and relevant skills are also seen as key hurdles in 2019. As companies navigate their digital journey, the need to digitize their core and manage change at scale will grow in importance.

Comparing different industry sectors

The highest maturity levels were found in technology, manufacturing, telco and financial services sectors, while industries such as consumer goods, logistics and healthcare ranked near the bottom regarding their digital transformation progress.

Compared to other industries, retail is in the middle of the pack, with many legacy retailers not having made much headway. Perhaps surprisingly, the automotive sector lags other sectors in terms of its digital maturity. While autonomous and connected vehicles grab headlines, much work is needed to modernize legacy systems and integrate the automotive ecosystem.

As companies navigate their digital journey, the need to digitize their core and manage change at scale will grow in importance
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What action to take?

To become more like visionaries, companies should develop and implement a comprehensive strategy for using automation and AI to bolster human capabilities, rather than focusing shortsightedly on cutting costs. They need to put in place a formal digital transformation strategy, and share that plan with employees, customers and partners alike.

“2019 will be the year of ‘how’. The ‘why’ (customer experience, revenue impact, internal alignment) and the ‘what’ (emerging technologies) of transformation are now clear to enterprise leaders, after the intense debate of the last couple of years,” says Phil Fersht, CEO and Chief Analyst, Horses for Sources. “The findings of the Infosys Digital Radar 2019 point to the core need for enterprises to address the ‘how’ and focus on executing their digital transformation. Execution requires integration in every sense of the word – technology, talent, organizational change and leadership to achieve scale and deliver exponential benefits.”

Incumbent companies need to do three things well, and simultaneously: first – establish the technical foundations for digital transformation; second – build technological capabilities and talent; and third – innovate at the speed of agile development. Two ways that companies can enable themselves to do this are by amplifying their existing capabilities, by focusing on high-value projects with the greatest potential impact. And, by partnering with the ecosystem to gain access to complementary skills and resources. The research revealed that companies currently partner for two-thirds of their digital initiatives.

The Infosys Digital Radar 2019 reveals the digital transformation progress that companies have made since The New Champions of Digital Disruption: Incumbent Organizations report in 2018, which clustered companies into three personas: ‘visionaries’ (the most advanced in their digital transformation journey), followed by ‘explorers’ and then ‘watchers’.

• Over two thirds of UK businesses are explorers (69%), compared to the global average of 61%. Nearly a fifth (19%) of UK businesses are visionaries. Fewer UK companies than the global average are at the less advanced watcher stage (12% vs 18%).
• The biggest barriers to transformation in the UK are an inability to experiment quickly (45%), legacy systems (45%), insufficient budget (44%) and risk adverse company culture (41%).
• Overall the UK has a Digital Maturity Index of 60.7, significantly higher than the global average of 57.4. The UK is more digitally mature than the US (55.1) and Germany (54.8), but lags behind France (65.3) and India (77.9).
• The highest digital maturity in UK industries was found in telecommunication businesses (with a Digital Maturity Index of 76.9), followed by insurance (70.5), technology (70.2) and manufacturing (67.3) companies.

You can read the full report here and check out the infographic summarising the findings below:

Tech Trends offers a broad range of Digital Consultancy services to guide companies through their digital transformation journey, helping individuals and brands to effectively leverage existing and emerging technologies in their business strategy.

Alice Bonasio is a VR and Digital Transformation Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio on Twitter.

The post Infographic: Digital Transformation appeared first on Tech Trends.

It is really interesting with any new platform to see what types of games become popular as the medium evolves. And it’s often not what you’d expect. Even as mobiles became able to handle better graphics and high-speed Internet access on the move became ubiquitous, it was still the relatively simple games like FarmVille, Candy Crush and Angry Birds that stole the show and had millions of people glued to the little screens.

It is really interesting with any new platform to see what types of games become popular as the medium evolves
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With immersive technologies, there’s now a dizzying array of creative experimentation going on, and it’s fair to say we’ve barely scratched the surface. One of the ways you can tell this is true is by spotting how many designers claim that their game is the first ever of its kind.

With immersive technologies, there’s now a dizzying array of creative experimentation going on
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Such is the case with Scriptum, which is bringing escape rooms to AR. For those not familiar with the concept, an escape room is a location-based experience where a group of people – family, friends, colleagues – go to role play and solve interactive puzzles as part of a narrative adventure, typically lasting around an hour, but it can vary.

Scriptum is bringing escape rooms to AR
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To start the game, you simply scan the floor of the room in which you’re standing, and step through the portal that appears
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“Escape rooms are becoming more popular around the world, and Scriptum is a mystery puzzle game that capitalizes on that trend and uses AR to recreate that. You have to find all the clues, and reach the exit through the portal in less than 15 minutes,” explains Alex Balcells, CEO at Adver2Play, the Barcelona-based company which developed Scriptum. “There might be other detective games out there, but Scriptum is the first app to put you inside of a real Escape Room.”

To start the game, you simply scan the floor of the room in which you’re standing, and step through the portal that appears. Then, of course, comes the tricky part of having to puzzle your way out of that room as quickly as possible by collecting clues and figuring out the puzzles.

The idea of Escape Rooms originated in Japan, but over the past few years it has gained popularity around the world
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The U.S. has seen what can only be described as a boom in this sector, which has grown from 22 companies to over 2,000 in the past four years
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It’s essentially very simple, but as it’s often the case, the proof of the pudding is in the execution. If people are engaged with the puzzles enough, they will buy into the concept more fully and the experience will gel. And according to Balcells, this is exactly what they’ve seen since launching Scriptum, adding that they’re very encouraged by the high levels of interest the app generated so far.

Scriptum is currently available to download on Google play and iTunes for free, but there is no doubt that there is a very attractive commercial market for this sort of product out there. Real-life escape rooms are often fully booked, specially at weekends, and can generate hundreds of thousands in revenue depending on their popularity.

Scriptum is currently available to download on Google play and iTunes for free, but there is no doubt that there is a very attractive commercial market for this sort of product out there
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Since the whole concept hinges on merging fantasy and real-world elements it seems like a natural fit for AR
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And since the whole concept hinges on merging fantasy and real-world elements, it would certainly seem like a natural fit for AR. Will it become the medium’s killer “sticky” app though? Only time will tell. In the meantime, good luck getting back to the real world.

This article was originally published on VRScout

Test Your Puzzle-Solving Skills In This AR Escape Room via @alicebonasio https://t.co/5UzjaYzaCs pic.twitter.com/7Jw5tEkiQm

— VRScout (@VRScout) December 13, 2018

For companies looking to get into Immersive technologies our VR Consultancy service offers comprehensive support in strategic deployment of Virtual, Augmented and Mixed Reality

Alice Bonasio is a VR Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio on Twitter.

The post Escaping from Augmented Reality appeared first on Tech Trends.

According to a recent Forbes survey, 77% of people who use VR want more social engagement, and I’ve long believed social is they key to getting the tech to a mass-market stage, but that needs to be done in the context of things that people already want to do rather than gimmicks.

Booking travel is one of those strange things that are simultaneously pleasurable and a complete nightmare, so any way that technology can improve on the experience is likely to fall under that desirable category.

According to a recent Forbes survey, 77% of people who use VR want more social engagement
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Travel is a social experience. Planning and booking a vacation is a clear example of that
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“Travel is a social experience. Planning and booking a vacation is a clear example of that and can sometimes be a grueling task. Forty percent of users prefer using VR in the company of others and the latest version of the Rizort VR app does just that. We want all travelers to be able interact in a fun and collaborative way in the process,” says Sachin Kanodia, CEO of Rizort.

The Rizort VR app works on headsets such as the Oculus Go and Samsung Gear to allow potential guests to virtually explore hotels, resorts and experiences from anywhere in the world
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The Rizort VR app works on headsets such as the Oculus Go and Samsung Gear to allow potential guests to virtually explore hotels, resorts and experiences from anywhere in the world. It also supports a multiuser mode where several people can check out a location or experience at the same time and compare notes and impressions, thus maximizing the chances of making everyone happy with the final booking.

To date, the San-Francisco based company has raised $2.9M dollars
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Rizort's multiuser mode allows several people to check out a location or experience at the same time
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Recently, Rizort added Dubai, Mexico and the Caribbean to its growing roster of destination offerings. Current destinations also include Bali, Thailand, the Maldives and destinations in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Fiji and Japan will be added in 2019.

Their hope is that the mixture of VR and 360 degree video will do a better job of enticing customers to try the destinations for real than a photo gallery or glossy brochure ever could.

“The guest can simply stroll through the hotel areas such as lobby, swimming pool, rooms, restaurants, bar etc to really understand the property better.”

To date, the San-Francisco based company has raised $2.9M dollars in seed funding to develop its platform, which uses a proprietary algorithm to match user intent to highly curated luxury hotels, resorts and experiences across multiple destinations.

So far, Rizort says they are very pleased with the results of the VR social feature and plan to keep making enhancements to the platform
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Rizort added Dubai, Mexico and the Caribbean to its growing roster of destination offerings
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So far, Rizort says they are very pleased with the results of the VR social feature and plan to keep making enhancements to the platform to further integrate the booking process into the virtual reality experience, making it into one seamless immersive travel platform.

This article was originally published on VRScout

Check Out Your Travel Destination In VR Before You Book via @alicebonasio https://t.co/hrF8HPcYuh pic.twitter.com/XTxFLqDAVt

— VRScout (@VRScout) December 15, 2018

For companies looking to get into Immersive technologies our VR Consultancy service offers comprehensive support in strategic deployment of Virtual, Augmented and Mixed Reality

Alice Bonasio is a VR Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio on Twitter.

The post Traveling in Virtual Reality appeared first on Tech Trends.

This day and age, one could be forgiven for being somewhat disillusioned with democracy, but still, come election time, I always vote
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As a woman I feel that voting is the least I can do to honour the sacrifice of people like Emmeline Pankhurst
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One of the reasons I do that without fail is because I figure that, as a woman, traveling a short distance to put a few ticks on a ballot (or even doing it from the comfort of my own home) is really the least I can do to honour the sacrifice of people like Emmeline Pankhurst, who endured and risked so much to earn me that right.

I also figure that if more people experienced and understood some of those sacrifices, they might feel the same, and we’d have much higher turnout rates in every election. And maybe VR experiences like the BBC’s Make Noise can help achieve that.

Throughout the experience you hear audio clips of real-life suffragettes
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It uses a combination of VR and voice-activated technology to encourage viewers to literally follow Emmeline Pankhurst’s advice to ‘make more noise’ to change the world.

“Inspired by the suffragettes who a century ago spoke up for a woman’s right to vote, Make Noise invites viewers to find and use their own voice and consider what it means to speak up in a world that doesn’t value it,” the news release reads.

The narrator – actor Nikki Amuka-Bird – encourages viewers to speak up as voice technology in the headset continuously detects and reacts to every sound they make.

“They’ll need to find their voice and use it to name the women that have inspired them, and to call out the objects that have oppressed women for centuries – changing the virtual environment around them as they do so,” she says

Every sound you make in the experience therefore has an effect in the virtual surroundings as you sing, hum and shout the names of these inspirational women like incantations against indifference and oppression.

The experience uses a combination of VR and voice-activated technology to encourage viewers to literally follow Emmeline Pankhurst’s advice to ‘make more noise’ to change the world
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The experience is available to download for free from the Oculus Store, and will be available on the Oculus Go. It’s also being shown at a number of libraries and literary events across the United Kingdom. At one such event, Helen Pankhurst, Emmeline’s great-granddaughter had the opportunity to try it on and was enthusiastic about how the immersive medium really helped to bring out her ancestor’s story:

“You’re asked not just to look but to use your mind and your voice. I think that focus on the voice and your own engagement with it is incredible,” she said.

Throughout the experience viewers also hear BBC archive audio clips of real-life suffragettes (Edith Pepper, Charlotte Drake, Charlotte Marsh, Mary Richardson, Lillian Lenton, Victoria Liliard, Grace Roe and Elizabeth Dean) explaining how they found their own voice, and used it to change the world.

Helen Pankhurst, Emmeline’s great-granddaughter had the opportunity to try it on and was enthusiastic about how the immersive medium really helped to bring out her ancestor’s story
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Make Noise was produced by BBC VR Hub and Anagram. Its director, May Abdalla, explains that they opted to use bold abstract visuals to make playful worlds and mess with scale so that the aesthetics of Victorian England didn’t get in the way of the story:

“In these strange visual universes the punk attitude of these inspirational women really stands out,” she says. “Each chapter represents the emotional journey of their path to victory; from frustration though finding solidarity and resistance. “We wanted to find a way to really connect the stories of the suffragettes to our lives, and the fact is that standing up for something when people are trying to shut you down is something we all can relate to.”

This article originally appeared on VRScout

Voice-Activated BBC VR Experience Puts You In The Shoes Of A Suffragette via @alicebonasio https://t.co/8LN4VfUwpX pic.twitter.com/GXX0Qu5YDb

— VRScout (@VRScout) December 12, 2018

For companies looking to get into Immersive technologies our VR Consultancy service offers comprehensive support in strategic deployment of Virtual, Augmented and Mixed Reality

Alice Bonasio is a VR Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio on Twitter.

The post Making Noise in VR appeared first on Tech Trends.

The ability to create engaging avatars is of course crucial if Social Immersive experiences and platforms are ever to catch on with consumers, and that’s arguably also the trickiest piece of the puzzle, as creators have to balance the desire for realistic representation and interaction with avoiding the dreaded Uncanny Valley. It will be interesting to see who cracks that particular nut first, as so far no particular player has emerged as a clear front runner and many of the social VR platforms only offer avatars that range from functional to frankly embarrassing (naming no names).

The ability to create engaging avatars is key to making Social Immersive experiences catch on with consumers
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Recently launched out of stealth mode, Artie is a LA-based company that hopes to do just that by leveraging sophisticated AI technology. According to a news release, they have developed software that allows content creators to bring virtual characters – i.e. Intelligent Avatars — to life.

This proprietary “Wonderfriend Engine” enables those avatars to interact and converse with consumers and each other in more realistic and engaging ways by doing things such as recognizing a large variety of objects and common facial expressions in real-time.

“Unlike other avatar apps, which only allow consumers to create and manually puppet avatars based on their own likeness for chat purposes, Artie enables consumers to interact and converse directly with their favorite characters,” said Ryan Horrigan, Co-founder and CEO of Artie. “We plan to unlock new value for the world’s biggest IP by creating a new form of avatar-based entertainment.”

Artie has developed software that allows content creators to bring virtual characters – i.e. Intelligent Avatars - to life
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Artie’s analytics engine and deep-learning insights means creators will be able to monitor engagement with their avatars in real-time. The platform also captures user behaviors to drive neural networks that automatically train and improve an avatar’s performance over time so that interactions get more lifelike for each subsequent user.

“Our avatars will actually learn from you, and become increasingly entertaining the more you interact with them,” says Co-founder Armando Kirwin. “Advancements in machine learning, natural language processing, computer vision and sentiment analysis allow our users to create intelligent avatars that are much more engaging than traditional media,” he adds.

The company is also working on an ‘Instant Avatar’ feature to make their avatars shareable via standard hyperlinks and thus discoverable on social media platforms like Instagram and YouTube.

“We expect to see AI-driven avatars become mainstream experiences for consumers,” says Tipatat Chennavasin, General Partner of the Venture Reality Fund, which has invested in the company alongside the Founders Fund, WndrCo, M Ventures, Metaverse Ventures and YouTube Co-founder and former CEO Chad Hurley.

Artie has already secured partnerships with Google and Verizon for early experiments with its Avatar technology
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“I’ve long been fascinated by where the next gen of entertainment might take us, and I believe that intelligent, virtual characters—like the kind you can make with Artie’s platform—will play a key role in how we create and interact with content,” adds Hurley.

We expect to see AI-driven avatars become mainstream experiences
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Artie has already secured partnerships with Google and Verizon for early experiments with its technology and is beginning to onboard major media companies, celebrities, influencers, and an “emerging class of avatar-based entertainment creators.”

This article was first published on VRScout

Building An AR Platform For Intelligent Avatars via @alicebonasio https://t.co/UACDsJjWvE pic.twitter.com/Grbzzu1bZd

— VRScout (@VRScout) December 10, 2018

For companies looking to get into Immersive technologies our VR Consultancy service offers comprehensive support in strategic deployment of Virtual, Augmented and Mixed Reality

Alice Bonasio is a VR Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio on Twitter.

The post Making Intelligent Avatars in AR appeared first on Tech Trends.

Fans will soon be able to step into a virtual Sansar comedy club and enjoy live stand-up shows by well-known comics such as YouTube star personality Steve Hofstetter – for a new event series called “Comedy Gladiators: a Virtual Comedy Experience.”

The live comedy showcase will allow fans to do everything in VR that they would do at a real-life comedy club
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Fans will soon be able to step into a virtual Sansar comedy club and enjoy live stand-up shows by well-known comics such as YouTube star personality Steve Hofstetter
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The live comedy showcase will, according to Sansar’s creators Linden Lab, allow fans to do everything in VR that they would do at a real-life comedy club: purchase tickets in advance, shop for custom merch and memorabilia, even order drinks.

“Fans can purchase tickets online via the Sansar Store, just as they would for a real-life event, and receive instant access to the virtual venue. Once there, they can purchase a wide range of items, including commemorative virtual t-shirts, beer mugs, and even physical copies of Steve’s most recent book, Ginger Kid,” according to their news release.

You can purchase tickets online via the Sansar Store
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Tickets went on sale for $9.99 for the first event in the series which was scheduled for Monday, December 10, at 7:30 PM PT, and featured stand-up and storytelling from Hofstetter alongside Ben Gleib (voice of Marshall in Ice Age: Continental Drift), Maz Jobrani (part of the “Axis of Evil” comedy group), Alonzo Bodden (winner of Last Comic Standing season 3), and Mary Lynn Rajskub (actress in Fox series 24).

Tickets went on sale for $9.99 for the first event in the series
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This idea itself is nothing new, of course. There are many companies out there trying to monetize on virtual live events such as concerts. AltspaceVR tried it as early as 2016, before they were acquired by Microsoft, claiming to be the first ones to host a live comedy event in VR (on a slight side note, any time anybody claims to be the first to do anything in VR they are almost guaranteed to be flooded by comments and clarifications from the Second Life community who will helpfully tell you how they’ve been doing that s**t since the 90s).

There are many companies out there trying to monetize on virtual live events such as concerts
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Sansar itself has been successfully exploring different in-world experiences, including an exclusive eshibit of Star Wars memorabilia and artwork from Burning Man in partnership with the Smithsonian, but these have mostly been free. Since launching Sansar in public beta last year, however, Linden Lab has made no bones about the fact that monetization is a core part of its plans for the platform, much like it has been for Second Life. This is therefore quite a big milestone for the company according to Linden Lab CEO Ebbe Altberg.

Sansar has been successfully exploring different in-world experiences, including an exclusive eshibit of Star Wars memorabilia and artwork from Burning Man in partnership with the Smithsonian
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“By bringing these commercial opportunities into VR, Sansar is taking virtual events to a whole new level – enhancing and expanding on what’s possible in-person. We look at Comedy Gladiators as the first ripple in a larger wave – the first event of many more that bring entertainers into VR – and we’re thrilled that Steve shares this vision”

For entertainers like Hofstetter, the collaboration offers a chance to greatly expand their audience without compromising the intimate feel of a live performance:

“Every day, I get emails and DMs from fans who want to see a live show, but they live in parts of the world I’ll probably never tour in,” Hofstetter said. “VR allows those fans to not only see a live show, but feel like they’re part of a bigger community,” he says.

Sansar’s Avatar Broadcasting feature will enable the performers taking part in Comedy Gladiators to virtually broadcast their performances across an unlimited number of spaces in Sansar, reaching a wider audience than a physical event could ever allow and giving a lot more fans a chance to grab a front row seat.

By bringing these commercial opportunities into VR, Sansar is taking virtual events to a whole new level
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Sansar’s Avatar Broadcasting feature will enable the performers taking part in Comedy Gladiators to virtually broadcast their performances across an unlimited number of spaces
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Whether or not fans will keep coming back to spend their real-world cash on virtual shows and merchandise will really depend on the quality of experience. In terms of visuals, Sansar is probably the most advanced of the social VR platforms, but that often comes at a cost in terms of slow loading times and intensive demands on your GPU and CPU, so it will be interesting to see whether they manage to lure enough pundits to develop this as a scalable commercial avenue. I’d say that for $10 it’s worth a try, just for laughs.

This article was originally published on VRScout

Sansar To Host Live VR Comedy Series With YouTube Star Steve Hofstetter via @alicebonasio https://t.co/54OlwLk8Cs pic.twitter.com/3TgSfza2Ku

— VRScout (@VRScout) December 9, 2018

For companies looking to get into Immersive technologies our VR Consultancy service offers comprehensive support in strategic deployment of Virtual, Augmented and Mixed Reality

Alice Bonasio is a VR Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio on Twitter.

The post A Virtual Comedy Experience appeared first on Tech Trends.

Report by Deloitte shows that only 16% of executives believe their teams have the capabilities needed to deliver on their company’s digital strategy.

Despite a significant uptick in investment in emerging technologies in the past 12 months, UK executives lack confidence in their own digital skills. According to a survey recently published by Deloitte as part of its Digital Disruption Index, less than half (45 per cent) of executives are confident in their own digital skills and ability to lead their organisation in the digital economy, while just 16 per cent believe their talent pool has enough knowledge and expertise to deliver their digital strategy.

Despite a significant uptick in investment in emerging technologies in the past 12 months, UK executives lack confidence in their own digital skills
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The lack of confidence in digital leadership hasn’t stopped organisations from embracing new technologies
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One hundred and six executives responsible for digital technologies and ways of working from FTSE listed companies, large private companies and large UK public sector organisations participated in the survey. The combined market value of the 106 survey participants is £707.8 billion, which equates to approximately 27 per cent of the UK quoted equity market. This information, which was collected between February and March 2018, has been analysed in aggregate and forms the basis of this publication.

Confidence in digital skills is currently low, almost half (49 per cent) of executives plan to invest more than £10 million in digital technologies and ways of working by 2020. 35 per cent plan to invest more than £10 million in the 2018 alone. 38 per cent of executives who say their organisation will invest in three or more emerging technologies over the next two years say that they do not have a coherent strategy in place.

“The pace of technological change is accelerating, however in the rush to keep up many organisations are yet to develop a coherent strategy for investing in digital technologies. More efforts need to be made to align learning and development alongside strategy and investment,” Explains Oliver Vernon-Harcourt, partner at Deloitte and author of this year’s Digital Disruption Index. “End-to-end digital transformation is not just about advances in technology, but about changing the ways of doing business.”

Leap of faith in AI

The lack of confidence in digital leadership hasn’t stopped organisations from embracing new technologies. Two in five (41 per cent) businesses have invested in AI technology, up from one in five (22 per cent) who said they had in 2017. Overall, 10 per cent have already invested more than £5 million in AI technology, with 15 per cent planning to invest more than £5 million in the coming year.

Data scientists and analysts remain the most difficult to recruit and retain
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Despite significant investments having already been made in AI, less than one in four (23 per cent) say that their leadership team has a clear understanding of the technology and how it will impact their business.

Overall by 2020, 82 per cent of executives plan to invest in AI, while 70 per cent plan to invest in robotic and cognitive automation and 57 per cent in blockchain.

“Investment into AI has seen significant growth since 2017, with some organisations now moving into large-scale adoption. However, many leadership teams currently lack awareness of the technology and this could act as a significant barrier to the adoption and development of the technology. It also suggests a lack of preparedness among senior leadership for how AI will impact their workforce,” adds Vernon-Harcourt.

Urgent Need to address Digital skills gap

Only 12 per cent of leaders believe UK school leavers and graduates have the right digital skills, down from 20 per cent who said the same in 2017. Over three-quarters are experiencing challenges in recruiting employees with the relevant digital skills. Data scientists and analysts remain the most difficult roles to recruit and retain.

Despite significant investments having been made in AI, less than one in four say their leadership team has a clear understanding of the technology and how it will impact their business
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While executives continue to worry that not enough school-leavers and graduates have the right mix of digital skills, only 17 per cent believe that UK companies lead the way with digital.

“Digital is not just about technology. It is about what technology enables. It can fundamentally change how work gets done, how organisations interact with their customers and how decisions are made. To realise the potential of digital technologies and benefit from these, it is vital for businesses to join together in addressing the digital skills gap,” Vernon-Harcourt concludes.

For companies looking to get into Immersive technologies such as VR/AR/MR/XR our Virtual Reality Consultancy services offer guidance and support on how best to incorporate these into your brand strategy.

Alice Bonasio is a VR and Digital Transformation Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio on Twitter.

The post Report: We are Lacking the Skills Needed to Drive the Digital Economy appeared first on Tech Trends.

Virtual, augmented and mixed reality are changing everything from training to marketing and storytelling.

By Daniel Fraga, VR/AR Designer at Somewhere Else innovation agency

You don’t only think with your mind. Your notebook is part of your thinking. So is your pen, your smartphone - your whole environment. That’s why Immersive Tech is a powder keg, waiting for a spark
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The Extended Mind

The Extended Mind Hypothesis – first proposed in 1998 by Andy Clark and David Chalmers – is the idea that objects within the environment function as part of the mind. Take “Otto” and “Inga” for example. They are both travelling to a museum simultaneously. Otto has Alzheimer’s and has written the directions to the museum on his notebook. On the other side, Inga relies on the memory of previous trips to find her way.

From a functional perspective, Otto’s notebook has the same role as Inga’s memory – although one is a physical object and the other a mental property. Otto’s mind has been extended to include the notebook as the source of his own memory. This idea – that our environments are part of our “minds”, resonates with the ideas of Robert Pepperell. In the Post-Human Manifesto , he says that “Human bodies have no boundaries” , and that “Consciousness (mind) and the environment (reality) cannot be separated; they are continuous” .

The Extended Mind Hypothesis – first proposed in 1998 by Andy Clark and David Chalmers – is the idea that objects within the environment function as part of the mind
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So in the same way that Otto’s notebook is part of his extended mind, is a smartphone an intimate part of ours. The same can be said of our shoes and clothes. They are extensions of our skin that protect us from heat and cold.

It’s of no surprise to anyone that technology is becoming a vital part of our selves. In fact, as humans, we have always been naturally intimate with technology. Think of fire, the wheel or even speech itself. These “technologies” have been there since the beginning of the human journey.

Today we’re approaching a critical moment, and fast. According to this survey , the average Brit checks their smartphone over 10,000 times per year. According to the UK Office for National Statistics, virtually all of all adults (99%) aged 16 to 34 years used the internet recently . Today, it is clear that new technologies are a fundamental part of our extended minds and influence the way we work. With the advent of virtual, augmented and mixed reality technologies – this will increasingly be the case.

This leads us to a big question: What if immersive tech could also help influence your way of thinking?

In the Post-Human Manifesto Robert Pepperell says that Human bodies have no boundaries and that the consciousness (mind) cannot be separated from the environment (reality) - they are continuous
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The world we see is quickly becoming an intelligent information display
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The Extended Mind x Immersive Tech

The world we see is quickly becoming an intelligent information display. Interfaces and information displays are multiplying, and immersive technology will only intensify this trend. For example, ZARA is augmenting the shopper experience by helping customers visualize the clothes they’re browsing by putting them on a digital model. Even IKEA is using AR to let people test their furniture in their own homes.

Michael. E Porter from Harvard Business Review says that “By superimposing digital information directly on real objects or environments, AR allows people to process the physical and digital simultaneously, eliminating the need to mentally bridge the two.”

As humans, we have always been naturally intimate with technology
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The bottom line is that reality is becoming mixed . The lines between “real” and “virtual” are inching closer and closer together. More importantly, one major consequence is that our minds will extend onto the visible world. We can do what Otto did with his notebook using Immersive Technologies.

PSA Peugeot Citroen have been developing tools to superimpose directions directly on roads to help drivers. In theory, Mixed Reality (MR) lets the user see the real world with realistic virtual objects. It anchors those virtual objects to a point in space, making it possible to interact with them as if they were real. At least from the perspective of the user.

The average Brit checks their smartphone over 10,000 times per year
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” The ultimate computer, for me, is this mixed-reality computer, where your field of view becomes an infinite display, where you see the world. And you see virtual objects and holograms. That’s definitely what we are building today with HoloLens” , says Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft.

We are in the middle of a technological transformation. In our near future, our digital lives will center on devices that look like common eyeglasses, but that weave together “virtual” and “real”. An extended field of mind – made possible through a very intimate technology. In a curious way, Immersive Tech can even be said to be Psychedelic . This word is based on the Ancient Greek words psychē (ψυχή, “soul”) and dēloun (δηλοῦν, “to make visible, to reveal”). It translates to “soul-revealing” ; it makes the content of our minds visible, as it pours into our spaces.

Immersive Tech invites us to use the spaces around us as a medium to interact with technology
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Immersive Tech invites us to use “space” around us as a medium to interact with technology. The advent of technology like Magic Leap – a game changing mixed reality headset – will trigger a new way of looking at space and content, because we are designing the spaces with which you think: spatial computers .

Maybe in the future we will use Immersive Tech in the same way Otto uses his notebook or Inga uses her memory. As a natural extension of our being – an extension which reveals our worlds back to us in a new way. We will spend our days, weeks and months immersed in curated worlds – with their own rules, contexts, dynamics and interfaces.

For companies looking to get into Immersive technologies such as VR/AR/MR/XR our Virtual Reality Consultancy services offer guidance and support on how best to incorporate these into your brand strategy.

Alice Bonasio is a VR and Digital Transformation Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio on Twitter.

The post Expert View: How Technology is Making Us Rethink the Way We Think appeared first on Tech Trends.

What sectors are embracing digital transformation and which are lagging behind?

This infographic by Ovum shows that sectors such as telecoms and banking are most advanced in terms of adopting digital transformation.

Across the enterprises surveyed, only 8% consider themselves to have achieved transformation
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The company’s annual survey of ICT decision-makers across 14 industries indicates that fewer than 10% of enterprises have achieved their digital transformation goals.

6,300 interviews with senior ICT executives were conducted globally
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6,300 interviews were conducted globally, asking senior ICT executives to rate their organisations against nine steps identified as key to digital transformation.

Fewer than 10% of enterprises have achieved their digital transformation goals
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These ranged from tackling cybersecurity, to developing digital skills, creating the necessary organisation structure & culture, to digitizing processes, creating digital services, to having a clearly articulated digital strategy.

Ovum created a digital maturity index aggregating progress by enterprises in each vertical
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Ovum created a digital maturity index aggregating progress by enterprises in each vertical across the nine steps. While the telecoms sector was most advanced, the overall level of digital maturity is low, with its index score currently at 43.9%, with banking next at 42%; many providers in both sectors are still at early stages or mid-stream levels across most of steps. Indeed, across the enterprises surveyed, only 8% consider themselves to have achieved transformation, and only a fraction over 16% believe they are well-advanced.

Sectors such as telecoms and banking are most advanced in adopting digital transformation
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The ICT Enterprise Insights program also examined the role of enabling digital technologies in path to digital transformation, including Big Data, blockchain, IoT, platform architecture/APIs, artificial intelligence (AI), and microservices. Here, enterprises are most advanced in adoption of Big Data and API-based architectures with close to 40% of enterprises actively trialing or deploying these areas.

Enterprises are most advanced in adoption of Big Data and API-based architectures
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Microservices and IoT were found to be less advanced in terms of active deployment, but still 50% of respondents were planning or considering these in future. In contrast, much-hyped technologies such as AI and blockchain were much less developed.

Microservices and IoT were found to be less advanced in terms of active deployment
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Header Image Credit: Cerillion

To find out how to leverage VR/AR/MR in your enterprise, Tech Trends offers bespoke Virtual Reality Consultancy support

Alice Bonasio is a VR Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio and @techtrends_tech on Twitter.

The post Infographic: Digital Transformation appeared first on Tech Trends.