Intelligent Tech Channels Issue 14 | Page 46

INTELLIGENT SOFTWARE BUSINESS PREDICTIONS 2018 Daryl Plummer, Vice President and Gartner Fellow, Distinguished. Digital giants will self-disrupt, false news will take command As we move into 2018, the digital giant shake-out increases tempo and AI driven false news begins to take hold, describes Gartner’s Daryl Plummer. T echnology-based innovation is arriving faster than most organisations can keep up with. Before one innovation is implemented, two others arrive. CIOs in end-user organisations will need to develop a pace that can be sustained no matter what the future holds. Those who seek value from technology-based options must move faster as their digital business efforts move into high gear. Speed of change will require variability of skills and capabilities to address rising challenges. to run into situations where their influence has grown so large that it is difficult to create new value scenarios. This ultimately leads to self-disruption. In a self-disrupting strategy, disruption arises as intentional intent to get there first, even if it is necessary to disrupt yourself. While this can be risky, risk of inaction can be even higher. The digital giants have a vested interest in innovation continuing to accelerate. Therefore, leaders in the digital space must continuously seek to create new opportunities, including self-disruption. By 2020, five of the top seven digital giants will willfully self-disrupt to create their next leadership opportunity By the end of 2020, the banking industry will derive $1 billion in business value from the use of blockchain-based cryptocurrencies In doing new things, digital giants — such as Alibaba, Amazon, Apple, Baidu, Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Tencent — are likely 46 The current combined value of cryptocurrencies in circulation worldwide is $155 billon, and this value has been increasing as tokens continue to proliferate and market interest grows. Cryptocurrencies are more mature than the technical and business infrastructure that supports them. This is, in part, due to the lack of credibility tokenised developments have received from mainstream businesses. However, once banks start to see cryptocurrencies and digital assets in the same context as more traditional financial instruments, more distributed business value will begin to accrue. This requires every industry to rethink aspects of current fiat-based business models such as pricing of goods and services, accounting and tax methods, payment systems, and risk management capabilities to accommodate these new forms of value in their business strategies. Issue 14 INTELLIGENT TECH CHANNELS