Digital Age Here, Says IDC: Get To Know Your ‘Customer Support Bot’

By 2021, at least 60 percent of Australia’s gross domestic profit will be digitised, with growth in every industry driven by digitally enhanced offerings, operations and relationships, according to a new study by leading market research firm IDC.

Artificial intelligence (AI) will be “everywhere”, the industry watcher predicts in its report, titled IDC Australia IT Industry Predictions, 2018: Digital Native Enterprises Amplify Innovation and Reach.

It estimates that 85 percent of commercial enterprise apps will be using AI, while more than 65pc of consumers will interact with what it calls “customer support bots”. Can’t wait, eh?

There will be victims, IDC warns. “While DX [IDC’s term for the digitisation of business] accelerates in Australia and globally, the half-life of companies shrinks, disrupted by new business models and third- platform technologies,” it warns.

“The imperative is not just keeping pace with business change but also increasing the speed of business operations. In an attempt to go faster, organisations struggle under a forest of silos, and business innovations stagnate with redundancy and inconsistency.”