Insights

Australia’s Digital Future to 2050 (Part 2): Who will benefit?

It’s happening already. We’re seeing the likes of traditional newspaper publishers struggling to stay afloat as volumes of readers switch to free online news outlets. As fast-speed internet becomes available everywhere on computers and smartphone, many traditional sectors such as book, magazine and newspaper publishing, radio and TV broadcasting, film processing and others, will face extinction unless they reinvent themselves.

Over the course of a three-part blog series, we examine the findings of a report just out by IBM and IBIS World, A Snapshot of Australia’s Digital Future to 2050, which looks at how Australia’s economy will change due to digital technology and who will benefit most from this “hyper digital era”. Specifically, our three part series focuses on:

Australia’s digital future will transform a whole host of industries. The report’s author, Phil Ruthven, Founder and Chairman or IBIS World, found the following industry divisions to be the biggest beneficiaries of the rising digital economy. Let’s see if there are any surprises.

1.    Public Administration and Safety

Superfast broadband, analytics and advanced software programs will give us smarter, fast-response emergency services, which will use predictive analytics to forecast and mitigate the impact of natural disasters, among many other innovations.

2.    Retail Trade

Retail will continue its online revolution, with eBay, Amazon and other diverse product group providers redefining the traditional concept of high street and shopping centre retailing.

3.    Mining

Smart sensors and machine-to-machine communications will reap productivity benefits for mining by taking out labour costs and increasing efficiency. While superfast broadband will play an important function in logistics, virtual operations (including robotics), ore grade use optimisation and exploration analyses.

4.    Health Care and Social Assistance

Superfast broadband will be vital in driving healthcare costs down by faster diagnostics, preventive health systems, partial self-diagnostic services and more efficient systems and operations in hospitals. This division must harness all the power of analytics and the speed and connectivity of superfast broadband to prevent what will otherwise be a massive cost burden by the late 21st century.

5.    Professional Scientific and Technical Services

This industry division will grow on the back of more business service function outsourcing, the rise of online information, a massive increase in creative and enabling software, the growth of ICT in the form of cloud computing and many other activities.

What will our future workplaces look like?

These were just a few of the industry sectors predicted to benefit the most from the rising digital economy, according to the report’s author, Phil Ruthven, Founder and Chairman or IBIS World. And if these industries change so significantly, our workplaces will likely change too. So, how will they be different?

Stay tuned to iFactory’s blog as we explore our future workplaces in the last chapter of our series: Australia’s Digital Future to 2050 (Part 3): Future workplaces. In case you missed it, here’s Australia’s Digital Future to 2050 (Part 1): Future trends.

In the meantime, if you’re looking for help integrating internet technology to grow your business, contact iFactory for tailored advice.

iFactory is an award-winning, full service digital agency in Brisbane. For more than ten years, we’ve been helping hundreds of clients grow through intelligent web solutions. So, why not leverage our experience and get us working for you today.

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