The 4th Industrial Revolution (4IR)
Have you ever paused for a second or two in your everyday busy schedule and asked yourself: “What is happening in my life?” “What is going on at my workplace?” Everything is changing fast. Why? I wouldn’t be surprised if your answer is “Information Communication Technology (ICT)”. But there is a more holistic and systematic way to make sense of these changes and the driving forces behind the scenes. It is called industrial revolution. According to Dr. Klaus Schwab, a former professor and the Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum (WEF), we are living in the 4th Industrial Revolution (4IR) where technologies such as artificial intelligence, blockchains, autonomous vehicles, or the Internet of Things (IoT) are becoming ingrained in our day-to-day lives. Most common examples including: “Alexa, turn on the bedroom light!” “Siri, call mom, I’m ready to go home!” With the use of biometric technologies, we can unlock our phone by showing our face and open a door with a simple finger touch. In the near future, we may be able to sit in the back seat and enjoy a delicious breakfast in a self-driving vehicle!
4IR was first coined by Dr. Klaus Schwab at WEF. He wrote a book titled: The Fourth Industrial Revolution (2017), in which he explained in detail what 4IR entails and the impact of 4IR on economy, workforce, national and global governance and development, as well as individuals like you and me. The video below published on WEF’s official YouTube channel gives a quick overview of the 4IR we are living in. The key characteristics that separate 4IR from the previous three industrial revolutions, according to Dr. Schwab, is the “fusion of these [smart and connected] technologies and their interaction across the physical, digital and biological domains” (2017, p. 8).
However, organizational transformations are not easy processes and the digital ones in the era of 4IR are even harder. Traditional brick-mortar businesses have lost a significant share of their markets to booming e-commerce industries. Current workforce has to constantly update their digital skills in order to remain to be employable. To learn more about the impact of 4IR on different aspects of our work and life, check out the 4IR wheel developed by WEF: https://intelligence.weforum.org/topics/a1Gb0000001RIhBEAW?tab=publications.
