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February 2019

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Face it, you are paying attention to robotics. Maybe it’s as a curiosity, maybe it’s out of due diligence, or perhaps your interest stems from a realization that robotic technology has become useful in ways well beyond the expected use. Regardless of your interest in robots, the fact is, robotic technology is quickly expanding beyond the realm of industrial automation and has steadily been making its way into new industries and use cases. As this technology expands into new areas, it is important for companies developing business applications, IoT and analytics platforms, and systems integration to pay attention and look for opportunities to capitalize on a new and growing market.

We can all acknowledge that the same technologies that are driving digital transformation within organizations are also rapidly transforming work as we know it. Much has been written in the mainstream media about the impact of the cloud, big data analytics, artificial intelligence and robotics on the future job market. But the story isn’t all doom and gloom. In a recent IDC survey, almost half of U.S. organizations surveyed (47%) thought that AI and robotics will have a positive impact on their organization’s jobs in the next 3 years.

My colleagues and I spend a great deal of time thinking about the Edge, and how it will influence developments in the IT industry over then next few years. Several of my colleagues just published a great IDC Market Perspective, making it clear that we believe the edge represents a new frontier in the convergence of infrastructure such as computing and data to deliver much faster time to value.

Somewhere along the way of the marketing campaigns and the market hype, the industry has forgotten why we are digitally transforming and what it means. If we rewind, traditional organizations are being disrupted by digital startups; they are seeking ways to innovate more rapidly, be customer-centric, harness data to generate insights at scale, and ultimately transform their operations to compete in the digital economy.