Post-Digital Era Provides New Opportunities For Organizations In The UAE To Deliver Personalized Realities And Experiences, According To Accenture Technology Vision 2019

The enterprise is entering a new "post-digital" era, where success will be based on an organization's ability to master a set of new technologies that can deliver personalized realities and experiences for customers, employees and business partners, according to Accenture Technology Vision 2019, the annual report from Accenture (NYSE: ACN) that predicts key technology trends that will redefine businesses over the next three years.

According to this year's report, "The Post-Digital Era is Upon Us — Are You Ready for What's Next?," the enterprise is at a turning point. Digital technologies enable companies to understand their customers with a new depth of granularity; give them more channels with which to reach those consumers; and enable them to expand ecosystems with new potential partners. But digital is no longer a differentiating advantage — it's now the price of admission.

In fact, nine in ten (90%) business and IT executives in UAE surveyed believe that digital technologies — specifically social, mobile, analytics and cloud — have moved beyond adoption silos to become part of the core technology foundation for their organization.

There has been a big appetite for digital transformation in the UAE, backed by the government's UAE Artificial Intelligence 2031 strategy. In 2018, the UAE Central Bank announced its cooperation with the Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority (SAMA) to work on a digital currency that will facilitate financial transactions between the two countries. More recently, the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) announced in March that autonomous taxis are ready to be introduced on Dubai roads, after successful trials on the smart vehicle. 

"The UAE has always been one step ahead when it comes to embracing technology and our survey results are a perfect reflection of this trend," said Alexis Lecanuet, Accenture's regional managing director for the Middle East and Turkey. "As the nation prepares to increasingly implement ground-breaking technology, local organizations must leverage these innovative tools to create hyper-personalized experiences for their customers and continue to build trust."

The Technology Vision identifies five emerging technology trends that companies must address if they are to succeed in today's rapidly evolving landscape:

• DARQ Power: Understanding the DNA of DARQ. The technologies of distributed ledgers, artificial intelligence, extended reality and quantum computing (DARQ) are catalysts for change, offering extraordinary new capabilities and enabling businesses to reimagine entire industries. When asked to rank which of these will have the greatest impact on their organization over the next three years, 39% of UAE executives ranked AI number one — more than twice the number of any other DARQ technology.
• Get to Know Me: Unlock unique consumers and unique opportunities. Technology-driven interactions are creating an expanding technology identity for every consumer. This living foundation of knowledge will be key to understanding the next generation of consumers and for delivering rich, individualized, experience-based relationships. The majority (94%) of UAE executives said that digital demographics give their organizations a new way to identify market opportunities for unmet customer needs.
• Human+ Worker: Change your workplace or hinder your workforce. As workforces become "human+" — with each individual worker empowered by their skillsets and knowledge plus a new, growing set of capabilities made possible through technology — companies must support a new way of working in the post-digital age. Eighty-five percent of UAE executives believe that their employees are more digitally mature than their organization, resulting in a workforce "waiting" for the organization to catch up.
• Secure Us to Secure Me: Enterprises are not victims, they're vectors. While ecosystem-driven business depends on interconnectedness, those connections increase companies' exposures to risks. Leading businesses recognize that security must play a key role in their efforts as they collaborate with entire ecosystems to deliver best-in-class products, services and experiences. Only 23% of UAE executives said they know their ecosystem partners are working diligently to be compliant and resilient with regard to security.
• MyMarkets: Meet consumers at the speed of now. Technology is creating a world of intensely customized and on-demand experiences, and companies must reinvent their organizations to find and capture those opportunities. That means viewing each opportunity as if it's an individual market—a momentary market. The majority of UAE executives (94%) said that the integration of customization and real-time delivery is the next big wave of competitive advantage.

According to the report, innovation for organizations in the post-digital era involves figuring out how to shape the world around people and pick the right time to offer their products and services. They're taking their first steps in a world that tailors itself to fit every moment — where products, services and even people's surroundings are customized and where businesses cater to the individual in every aspect of their lives and jobs, shaping their realities.

For almost two decades, Accenture has taken a systematic look across the enterprise landscape to identify emerging technology trends that hold the greatest potential to disrupt businesses and industries.

For more information on this year's report, visit www.accenture.com/technologyvision or follow the conversation on Twitter with #TechVision2019.