By 2025, jobs which were common place in 2015 will no longer exist. Students graduating in 2016, will have obsolete qualifications for which there will no longer be a profession by 2025.

Front-line military personnel will be replaced with robots
Private bankers and wealth managers will be replaced with algorithms
Telemarketers, data entry capturers, tax preparers, lawyers, accountants, actuaries, statisticians and consulting engineers will be replaced with Artificial Intelligence (AI).

New business models, like those of Uber and Alibaba, are already industry-shaping disruptors, and each day, new Digital innovators are emerging to cause disintermediation and disruption across every industry imaginable.

Traditional enterprises, whilst presently successful by today’s standards, are scrambling to make sense of Business Digitisation in order to stay relevant in the Digital future. Many are attempting to create new Digital business models which will eventually cannibalise their traditional business, rather than capitulating to new disruptive Digital start-ups. Companies are also digitising their products and services, along with operational processes and customer channels.

Over 70% of top fortune 500 companies have plans to offer their products as a Digital service by 2020. Presently, the 10 most valuable start-ups globally are estimated to have a value of $172.7 billion – all embracing Digital platform based business models. Around 90% of the business models in 2020 will be driven by the cloud.

Globally, the number of connected devices will nearly quadruple by 2025, significantly altering the skills employers hold most valuable. Increasing connectivity will change how employees choose to work (for example: remotely, part-time, independently, or dispersed), and provide employers with a spectrum of hiring options.

Millennials, most of whom are Digital Natives, will comprise an estimated 48.3% of the global labour force in 2025, while those aged 60 and older will comprise 9.9% (compared with 7.9% in 2015).

The line between what has traditionally been business and IT is becoming more and more blurred. Largely due to the early adoption and impact of Digital marketing, The Chief Marketing Officer or CMO, now controls a bigger “IT” budget and influence than the CIO. This is only set to increase and expand across the organisation, as Digital Natives become future business leaders.

What new skills and expertise will be required to lead and manage the Digital enterprise of the future?

As robots, AI and Digital algorithms continue to replace many jobs and professions; new and emerging professions by 2025 will focus more on human interaction, augmented through Digital mechanisms. Jobs requiring uniquely human characteristics, such as cultural deftness, caretaking, or empathy, and creative thinking, are those least threatened by automation.

The ability to work anywhere, anytime is fuelling the Digital nomad trend, which is highly appealing to millennials, but will also blur political and economic boundaries, and test national labour codes.

Artificial Intelligence, its subfields, and automation will create some specific reflecting trends associated with new and emerging technology advances. Career gains from AI and automation include:

· Artificial Intelligence technology and automation salesperson
· Specialist programmers
· Cybersecurity experts
· Engineering psychologists
· Robot and automation technology manufacturer, distributor, servicer, and refurbisher
· Technology-specific trainer
· Neuro-implant technicians
· Virtual health care specialist
· Virtual reality experience designer

Conclusion:
Digital transformation cannot be ignored without becoming irrelevant, and an adaptive Digital strategy is imperative.

The Digital workforce will be largely millennial, and significantly different from today in terms of culture, leadership style and skills. Artificial Intelligence, robots and Digital algorithms will automate many professions, but jobs requiring uniquely human characteristics – or are critical to the development of Digital solutions – will be in great demand by 2025.

A holistic Digital transformation strategy, which considers the Digital workforce along with the business model, process and customer channel dimensions, will be imperative for organisations wishing to remain relevant in the next 10 years.

Gartner said global smartphone sales will for the first time exhibit single digit growth in 2016. Global smartphone sales are estimated to reach 1.5 billion units in 2016, a 7 per cent growth from 2015. The total mobile phone market is forecast to reach 1.9 billion units in 2016.

Worldwide combined shipments for devices (PCs, tablets, ultramobiles and mobile phones) are expected to reach 2.4 billion units in 2016, a 0.6 per cent increase from 2015. End-user spending in constant US dollars is estimated to decline by 1.6 per cent year on year.

“The double-digit growth era for the global smartphone market has come to an end,” said Ranjit Atwal, Research Director at Gartner.

“Historically, worsening economic conditions had negligible impact on smartphone sales and spend, but this is no longer the case. China and North America smartphone sales are on pace to be flat in 2016, exhibiting a 0.7 per cent and 0.4 per cent growth respectively.”

Emerging Markets Continue to Grow, but at a Slower Rate
While smartphone sales will continue to grow in emerging markets, the growth will slow down. Gartner predicts that, through 2019, 150 million users will delay upgrades to smartphones in emerging Asia/Pacific, until the functionality and price combination of a low-cost smartphone becomes more desirable.

“Prices did not decline enough to drive upgrades from low-end feature phones to low-end smartphones,” said Annette Zimmermann, Research Director at Gartner. “Vendors were not able to reduce the price of a ‘good enough to use’ smartphone lower than $50.”

Countries such as India will help generate new mobile phone user growth. Sales of smartphones in India are on pace to reach 29 per cent in 2016 and will continue to exhibit double-digit growth in the next two years.

Mature Markets to Increase Mobile Phone Lifetimes
In the mature markets of North America, Western Europe, Japan and mature Asia/Pacific, Gartner analysts expect to see an extension of phone lifetimes among users.

“As carriers’ deals become more complex, users are likely to hold onto phones, especially as the technology updates become incremental rather than exponential,” said Ms Zimmermann.

“In addition, the volumes of users upgrading from basic phones to premium phones will slow, with more basic phones being replaced with the same type of phone.”

PC Shipments to Bottom Out in 2016
The global PC shipment market is expected to total 284 million units in 2016, a decline of 1.5 per cent year on year. Traditional PCs are on pace to decline 6.7 per cent in 2016. “In 2016, the PC market will reach its last year of decline before returning to growth in 2017,” said Atwal.

“The biggest challenge, and potential benefit for the PC market, is the integration of Windows 10 with Intel’s Skylake architecture. It has the potential for new form factors with more attractive features.”

In addition, the frustration with the capabilities in tablets will drive some consumers and businesses to review new form factors.

“However, to draw their interest the PC manufacturers need to ensure that they meet demand with the right products at the right price,” added Atwal.

Demand for ultramobiles (basic and utility tablets) will continue to weaken, with a decline of 3.4 per cent in 2016. Users are not only extending lifetimes, but also some will fail to replace these devices at all through 2016.

Nokia has announced sweeping job losses as the consequence of its acquisition of Alcatel Lucent.

The scale of the job cuts has not been confirmed yet though.

The company aims to cut EUR 900 million from its costs, to be achieved in full year 2018. At the same time, Nokia is taking steps to adapt to market conditions and to shift resources to future-oriented technologies such as 5G. As part of the program, the company also continues to target worldwide savings in real estate, services, procurement, supply chain and manufacturing.

The headcount reductions are expected to take place between now and the end of 2018. Reductions will come largely in areas where there are overlaps, such as research and development, regional and sales organizations as well as corporate functions.

Nokia outlined these areas on October 29, 2015, when updating its synergy target.

“These actions are designed to ensure that Nokia remains a strong industry leader,” said Nokia President and CEO Rajeev Suri.

“When we announced the acquisition of Alcatel-Lucent we made a commitment to deliver EUR 900 million in synergies – and that commitment has not changed. We also know that our actions will have real human consequences and, given this, we will proceed in a way that that is consistent with our company values and provide transition and other support to the impacted employees.”

A new research report released yesterday by International Data Corporation (IDC) shows that the Middle East and Africa (MEA) enterprise hardware market (comprising servers and external storage) remained flat in 2015 when compared to the annual revenues seen in the previous year.

Referencing its latest Quarterly Server and Disk Storage Systems Tracker, the research firm announced that enterprise hardware revenue in MEA totaled $2.31 billion in 2015, describing the year as transitionary in nature with organisations gradually moving towards convergence and datacenter optimisation.

“The region’s enterprise hardware landscape has transformed significantly in recent times, with organisation’s across MEA now increasingly focusing on converged systems and cloud solutions,” says Swapna Subramani, Research Manager for enterprise infrastructure at IDC Middle East, Africa, and Turkey.

“Given the challenging economic and political conditions now characterising much of the region, convergence and optimisation are becoming key.”

In line with this trend, the region is seeing increasing adoption of new technologies like converged systems, while procurement of infrastructure for cloud environments is also on the rise. The converged systems market, which includes hyper-converged appliances, grew by 6% year on year in 2015, and IDC expects this growth rate to reach 12% in 2016.

“New datacenter investments will leverage converged/hyper-converged infrastructures to support both public and private cloud deployments,” says Subramani.

The MEA external storage market declined 3% year on year in 2015. ”The region’s storage dynamics are swiftly moving in two different directions,” says Subramani.

“First is the movement into low-cost, scalable storage, while second is the growth of internal storage, which includes the value of storage enclosed within application servers containing three or more mass storage devices.”

IDC expects the high-end storage market to witness considerable uptake in the region during 2016, primarily bolstered by projects within the government, telecommunications, and oil & gas sectors. “The availability of alternative modes of storage such as flash, internal storage, converged systems, and cloud storage are the key driving factors for the ongoing shift we are seeing within the MEA storage market,” says Subramani.

Year on year, the MEA x86 server market witnessed 2% growth in value but a 4% decline in volume in 2015. “IDC witnessed an increased focus on high-end servers in 2015 as a result of investments increasingly being directed towards datacenter and cloud infrastructure projects,” says Victoria Mendes, Senior Research Analyst for enterprise infrastructure at IDC Middle East, Africa, and Turkey.

“This trend has resulted in an increase in the market’s value despite the decline in server shipments.”

The UAE enterprise hardware market grew 3% in value year on year in 2015. “The UAE was not hugely affected by the oil crisis in 2015 with a number of projects underway in the telecommunications, government, and banking sectors,” says Mendes.

“However, in line with the prevailing economic sentiment of the wider region, 2016 is expected to see a minor decline in the enterprise space as a number of key projects are postponed and budgets are cut.”

Saudi Arabia is expected to be heavily impacted by the oil crisis and the ongoing conflict in Yemen. The Kingdom’s enterprise hardware market suffered a 12% decline in value year on year in 2015 and IDC forecasts a further 17% decline for 2016.

However, the longer-term picture is far less gloomy, with IDC expecting the Saudi enterprise hardware market to stabilise and exhibit a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5% through to 2020.

The Africa enterprise hardware market suffered a 5% year-on-year downturn in value in 2015. The continent was rattled by currency depreciation in key markets like South Africa and Nigeria, along with political instability in several pockets of Africa.

Stability is expected to return this year, however, with IDC forecasting year-on-year growth of 3% for the continent as a whole. Egypt was the sole bright spot in 2015, showing good signs of recovery with year-on-year growth in enterprise hardware spending of 25%.

The release of pent-up demand from the political turmoil of the 2013–2014 period was the key factor driving the strong performance of the Egyptian market in 2015, and the market is expected to remain relatively flat in 2016 with cautious investments moving forward.

With 35.4% share, HP retained top spot in the overall MEA server market for 2015 despite suffering a 5% year-on-year decline in revenue. Dell moved up to second spot and was followed by IBM in the third place.

The latest edition of ITU’s annual global ICT regulatory report, Trends in Telecommunication Reform 2016,charts and analyzes the challenges and opportunities facing today’s ICT regulators as services proliferate, platforms converge and network operators ready their infrastructure for the next round of data-intensive technologies, from 5G mobile to the Internet of Things (IoT).

The world’s most comprehensive overview of ICT policy and regulatory trends, ITU’s Trends in Telecommunication Reform 2016 brings together insights from a broad range of leading global experts to help regulators, ICT analysts and tech journalists gain a deeper understanding of the issues facing an increasingly broad array of ICT players – and consumers.

New ICT goods and services are bringing with them enormous social and economic disruption. But while there are many benefits to be reaped, the report highlights regulatory challenges that must be addressed to preserve the ‘level playing field’ considered essential to competition and innovation. With the theme of ‘exploring regulatory incentives to achieve digital opportunities’, the report emphasizes the growing importance of flexible, light-touch, technology-neutral regulatory principles which stimulate market growth while protecting the rights of consumers and encouraging new entrants.

“Information and communication technologies are now all-pervasive and will be central to helping the world meet all 17 Sustainable Development Goals. The role of ICT regulators in creating an enabling environment for ICT growth and development has never been more critical,” said Houlin Zhao, ITU Secretary-General. “ITU’s annual Trends in Telecommunication Reform report supports regulators around the world to put the right policies in place for their national markets.”

“To realize the full potential of the digital economy, policy-makers and regulators have a key role to play in building policy and regulatory environments in which new technologies can flourish,” said Brahima Sanou, Director of ITU’s Telecommunication Development Bureau. “This 16th annual edition of Trends in Telecommunication Reform focuses on regulatory incentives to achieve digital opportunities which I believe upholds the ultimate goal of regulators: serving consumers.”

Key findings of the 2016 edition:
Broadband investment

Capital expenditures on fibre infrastructure are expected to surpass USD 144.2 billion between 2014 – 2019.
More than 40 operators have launched or are planning LTE-A deployments worldwide; 88% of these operators are in developed markets.

The rise in consumer data consumption may spur more Wi-Fi investment.

Increasing numbers of existing operators, new entrants and financiers are developing alternative funding approaches for broadband network investments.

Investment in broadband infrastructure is also coming from more unlikely institutions such as hedge funds or corporates that do not traditionally invest in telecoms infrastructure.

Network Sharing

When network coverage becomes less of a competitive differentiator, operators may need to consolidate networks (through network sharing) as a means of moving away from infrastructure investment and towards developing innovative services.
Governments currently allocate spectrum mainly on a dedicated basis. New dynamic spectrum access (DSA) technologies allow devices to use spectrum where it is not being used in a particular geographic area, or at a particular time.

Network sharing can have many benefits but is not without risks, which can include: reduction in competitive intensity; potential for collusive dealing and information sharing; and reduced options for services-based competitors.

IoT

The mobile industry association GSMA predicts between 1 – 2 billion M2M connections by 2020. Some experts believe that the market for IoT devices will grow exponentially, resulting in over USD 1.7 trillion in value added to the global economy by 2019.

The simplest IoT technology — passive RFID tagging — is already widespread in retail, transit ticketing and access control.

Near-Field Communication (NFC) is now included in newer smart phones, enabling applications such as contactless payments.

More complex M2M systems can send information over cellular networks. Examples include electricity metre readings sent to energy companies and car airbag deployment notifications sent to emergency services. Literally hundreds of millions of M2M systems are being deployed around the world.

IoT technical standards have evolved from a variety of different applications and stakeholders with different aims and requirements, and more work is needed to integrate different standards frameworks. A uniform network of “things” is unlikely to develop in the medium term. Smart meters are unlikely to communicate directly with heart-rate monitors, or recipe planners. Some networks will use public infrastructure, others will be entirely private. Some applications will have high bandwidth and interactivity requirements (such as video surveillance), others may focus on transferring short bursts of information (such as smart meters).

For IoT to become a truly ubiquitous technology, the cost of tags, sensors and communication systems need to fall to a level where they are a very small fraction of the total costs of the objects to which they are attached, with readers also made easily available. Even the cheapest (printed) tags, known as Quick Response (QR) codes, have not yet generated high responses in consumer-targeted marketing campaigns.

High reliability levels also become important in large-scale systems that can include thousands of sensors, devices and readers.

Without adequate security, intruders can break into IoT systems and networks, accessing potentially sensitive personal information about users and using vulnerable devices to attack local networks and other devices. IoT system operators and others with authorized access are also in a position to “collect, analyse, and act upon copious amounts of data from within traditionally private spaces.”

A further privacy issue relates to the amount of personal information that can be derived from seemingly innocuous sensor data, especially when it is combined with user profiles and data from other sources.

Interoperability

The concept of ‘interoperability’ is much broader than just technical compatibility, with implications across all four key levels – technological, data, human and institutional.
Systems can increase interoperability by:

– providing greater opportunities for technical interconnection;
– being more open about the types of systems and services that can interconnect;
– supporting a greater variety of data; and by
– making it easier for humans to leverage the interconnections.

Interop can also increase opportunities to exploit the system. A system that has more points of access allows (1) more types of systems to connect, (2) processes data with fewer limitations (3) increases potential attack vectors and (4) creates more opportunities for nefarious actors to exploit data or to inject bad code.

Increased levels of interoperability tend to enhance user choice and autonomy.

Interoperability is not an end in itself, and doesn’t always have to be maximized. Instead, private actors and regulators must work carefully to optimize the level of interop necessary to meet their objectives.

Interop challenges include:

– increased complexity of interoperable systems, which may lead to decreased reliability, with downstream systems increasing reliant on upstream systems
– Increased homogeneity and less market diversity
– Decreased privacy because of a rising number of individuals with access to one’s personal information
– Threats to business models – as higher levels of interop are distributed unequally across a market. Some businesses may have a vested interest in maintaining lower levels of interop, allowing them to benefit from customer lock-in.