Towards Responsible Digital Transformation

The current pervasive digitization not only provides immense opportunities for industries to digitally transform themselves (World Economic Forum 2018), it can also profoundly impact all facets of human society – from government services, education, healthcare, transportation, agriculture, manufacturing, energy, to the future of work.

Digitization allows information and services to flow without boundaries – the increased access for a wide range of users can break down socio-economic and cultural barriers. Innovations such as open-access learning in education and telemedicine in healthcare increase quality of life and promote developmental equity.

The emergence of “digital twins” – detailed representations of business and human entities based on activity data – can boost efficiency, enhance functionality, and improve lives.

For example, at the firm level, sensors and reinforcement learning allow logistics companies to optimize routes and reduce empty containers and fuels. With new product failure rates at over 90%, detailed models of consumers enable firms to perform simulations to more accurately predict demand before introducing new products to the market, resulting in lowered failure rates and more efficient resource allocation.

At the individual level, digital twins provide more accurate product recommendations before consumers’ needs are realized; the Internet of Things (IoT) sensors from devices such as Nest, smart mattresses or smart lightbulbs can gather and analyze consumers’ “in-use” data and promote healthy living habits; biometric data from increasingly sophisticated wearable devices can potentially detect illnesses before any symptoms emerge.

As computing becomes more ubiquitous, artificial intelligence more ambient, and digital transformation more commoditized, human society will become increasingly reliant on data and technology.

These seismic societal shifts are too important to be left by their own devices. We need to facilitate dialogues among multiple stakeholders such as public policymakers, legal scholars, technologists, social scientists, business leaders, and educational institutions, to ensure responsible, inclusive, and equitable progress in the age of digitization.