Predictions for a Big Data Future
November 19, 2015
Want to know what the future will look like? Navigate to “7 Reasons Why the Algorithmic Business Will Change Society.” The changes come via Datafloq via a mid tier consulting firm. I find the predictions oddly out of step with the milieu in which I live. That’s okay but this list of seven changes raises a number of questions and seems to sidestep some of the social consequences of the world foreshadowed in the predictions. Finding information is, let me say at the outset, not part of the Big Data future.
Here are the seven predictions:
- By 2018, 20% of all business content will be authorized by machines, which means a hiring freeze on copywriters in favor of robowriting algorithms;
- By 2020, autonomous software agents, or algorithms, outside human control, will participate in 5% off all economic transactions, thanks to, among others, blockchain. On the other hand, we will need pattern-matching algorithms to detect robot thieves.
- By 2018, more than 3 million workers globally will be supervised by a “roboboss”. These algorithms will determine what work you would need to do.
- By 2018, 50% of the fastest growing companies will have fewer employees than smart machines. Companies will become smaller due to expanding presence of algorithms.
- By 2018, customer digital assistants will recognize individuals by face and voice across channels and partners. Although this will benefit the customer, organizations should prevent the creepiness-factor.
- By 2018, 2 millions employees will be required to wear health and fitness tracking devices. The data generated from these devices, will be monitored by algorithms, which will inform management on any actions to be taken.
- By 2020, smart agents will facilitate 40% of mobile transactions, and the post-app era will begin to dominate, where algorithms in the cloud guide us through our daily tasks without the need for individual apps.
Fascinating. Who will work? What will people do in a Big Data world? What about social issues? How will one find information? What happens if one or more algorithms drift and deliver flawed outputs?
No answers of course, but that’s the great advantage of talking about a digital future three or more years down the road. I assume folks will have time to plan their Big Data strategy for this predicted world. I suppose one could ask Google, Watson, or one’s roboboss.
Stephen E Arnold, November 19, 2015
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