Technology has absolutely transformed our lives. Over the last 30 years, the advancements within the sector and emerging tech have been amazing. We have gone from dial-up internet to being able to have video calls on our smartphones with people on the other side of the globe. And it’s not just our daily lives that it has influenced.
It has also allowed us to game on our smartphones, with a UK bingo casino, Mario and LoL at our fingertips. It has also had a huge impact on many different industries in countries around the world. It has changed the landscape of businesses across many different sectors. Today we are going to look at four of the industries that have been impacted the most by digitization.
Healthcare
Life expectancy around the world is higher than it has ever been before and this is in part thanks to advancements in technology and the digitization of a lot of processes. For example, thanks to the scale of production and advancements in research, vaccines have been produced at timeframes and scales never seen before. It has also transformed how we interact with doctors.
Here in the UK, it’s no hidden secret that a lot of us struggle to get to see a doctor face-to-face. Luckily, however, video conferencing has made it so that we can have a video consultation with our GP faster than ever before, meaning we can receive a diagnosis or a recommendation faster than ever before.
Finance
This was an industry that was certainly going to appear on the list. We’ve gone from having to use cash everywhere or insert our PIN each time we make a card payment to contactless. We also have mobile apps for all of our banking needs now. Being able to make a transfer at the click of a button to a client or to a family member or friend. It has also led to the creation of a lot of smart banks, such as Monzo and Revolut. And so the process of digitization has not only made making and receiving payments so much easier but has actually led to the creation of businesses within an industry as a result of the ‘fintech’ revolution.
Manufacturing
The manufacturing industry was first spawned as a result of the industrial revolution. And now it has been transformed again thanks to digitization. Not only has it led to a lot of processes being automated, therefore increasing overall productivity, but it has also had a huge influence in areas such as cost-saving and making processes more efficient. As well as having a huge impact on areas such as QA, ensuring that the quality of products that are produced is more consistent and of a decent grade than ever seen before.
Media
Technology has also had a huge impact on the music and film industries. It has allowed us to go from having to listen to music on CDs to now being able to stream one of millions of different songs on platforms such as Spotify. Likewise, we have expansive movie catalogues at the tip of our fingers on streaming platforms such as Amazon Prime, meaning that we no longer have to go down to stores such as Blockbuster to rent a DVD out should we want to watch a movie on a Friday night.
In Summary
Of course, the revolution of digitization has had an impact on every single industry; there isn’t one that has gotten away unscathed. However, the four industries that we’ve focused on today have probably had the biggest growth and transformation thanks to advancements in technology. And it will be interesting going forward to see how AI will transform industries.
