Data is central to everyone and everything
Gartner’s Top Ten Strategic Predictions for 2022 and Beyond highlights the evolution of data and its significance in everything. Gartner believes that synthetic data generated using artificial intelligence (AI) techniques will increasingly replace the use of personal data, thereby helping companies avoid 70% of privacy violation penalties and punishments. Synthetic data is imitation data used for training and testing AI models to generate more precise insights without the risk and regulatory requirements of using real consumer data.
Gartner predicts that by 2024, 40% of consumers will attempt to trick behavior-tracking metrics intentionally, with the aim of devaluing the personal data collected about them and making it harder to monetize. The shift would seem to come in response to recent negative stories about how social media companies have exploited user data. The tactics consumers will use for this include VPNs, entering false information or going out of their way to opt-out of data collection altogether.
Deloitte expects data sharing to become a more powerful trend in 2022, as organizations use fully homomorphic encryption (FHE) and differential privacy to share data while preserving security and privacy. This can enable the exploitation of massive stores of sensitive data left unused due to privacy or regulatory concerns. Deloitte expects companies to develop new seamless, secure, data-sharing capabilities in 2022 that will help them monetize their own and other people’s data. According to Forrester, more than 70% of global data and analytics decision makers are increasing their capabilities to use external data, and a further 17% plan to do so within the next year.
A changing future for how we work
Hybrid work became one of the buzzwords of 2021. IDC believes that by 2023, digital transformation and business volatility will drive 70% of G2000 organizations to deploy remote or hybrid-first work models, redefining work processes and engaging diverse talent pools. Furthermore, by 2023, 60% of G2000 businesses will deploy AI- and ML-enabled platforms to support the entire employee lifecycle experience, from onboarding to retirement. And by 2024, G2000 companies will use intelligent digital workspaces with augmented visual technologies (hardware/software) in eight out of ten regularly scheduled meetings to enable high-performance distributed global teams.
Forrester believes that 2022 will be the year that employee experience (EX) goes mainstream and becomes a strategic enterprise imperative. Employers have had a lot of disruption to manage in 2021, but will continue to face decisions about where workers can work, what tools they need to be productive, and how managers and leaders will get the best out of their teams. According to Forrester, today 48% of large U.S. organizations have a dedicated program for EX – that will rise to 65% in 2022.
The importance of ecosystems
The past couple of years have seen those companies that had invested in digital transformation reap the benefits. It strengthened them against disruption while enabling them to keep delivering a good customer experience (CX). Digital transformation helped companies thrive thanks to them having strong ecosystems of partners able to support one another.
IDC’s 2022 ecosystem predictions include that in 2022, organizations that share data, applications and operations with their ecosystems will realize a revenue increase of 3% higher than nonparticipants. And by 2023, 60% of industry ecosystems will establish open innovation hubs for cross-industry collaboration, shared application development, personalized customer engagement and 5% year-on-year growth.
Forrester believes governments and public sector organizations will leverage ecosystems to enhance cybersecurity and revive public trust in digital services. The trend will see whole ecosystems of partners and supply chains shift to zero-trust cybersecurity philosophies, resulting in a stronger, more reliable public-private ecosystem.
Trust in the New Digital
Whatever business initiative you are planning, whether it is expanding into a new market, improving employee productivity or utilizing data to streamline your operations, it won’t succeed without the trust of your customers, employees and partners. Issues like sustainability have become corporate imperatives, and digital solutions can help you achieve them via integrity, accountability and transparency, which in turn can engender trust from your customers, workers and ecosystem partners.
Forrester’s Predictions 2022 anticipates that next year will see many companies create a new C-level role and appoint a new chief trust officer, predicting that 15 of the Global 500 companies will do this in 2022. The role will be a substantial one, with the chief trust officer responsible for board-level advisory and counsel, risk management, technology and governance, and human-focused areas of business trust like brand strategy and corporate values.
McKinsey foresees trust architecture becoming a major influence in 2022 and beyond. In 2019, over 8.5 billion data records were compromised, and despite big advances in cybersecurity, attacks continue to grow. Trust architectures can help in the fight against cybercrime, so expect to see blockchain play a bigger role in security, says McKinsey. “Trust architectures reduce the cost of complying with security regulations, lower cybersecurity operating and capital expenditures and enable more cost-efficient transactions between buyers and sellers.”
Read our New Digital era blog, which discusses the pivotal role of trusted data, trusted ecosystems and outcome-focused workspaces in 2022 and beyond.