Digital Transformation An IEEE Digital Reality Initiative White Paper November 2020 DigitalReality.ieee.org Contributors: Samina Husain Lyuba Alboul Derrick de Kerckhove Klaus Beetz Anand Munuswamy Franco Bernabé Nicholas Napp Fabio Carati Louis Nisiotis Tom Coughlin Héctor Poveda Stuart Mason Dambrot Jeewika Ranaweera Stephen Dukes Torsten Reiss Nelson Fonseca Valentina Rivoira Carlos Andres Lozano Garzon Roberto Saracco Gustavo Giannattasio Ricardo Veiga Abhilash Gopalakrishnan Cathy Zhouqian Kathy Grise Patrick Henz Edited by: Matthew Borst Table of Contents Digital Transformation ................................................................................................................. 6 1. Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 6 2. Lights and Shadows .................................................................................................................... 9 2.1 Upsides ................................................................................................................................ 10 2.2 Downsides ........................................................................................................................... 10 3. The enablers of the Digital Transformation .............................................................................. 13 3.1 Technological Enablers ....................................................................................................... 13 3.1.1 Conversion of atoms into bits ...................................................................................... 13 3.1.2 Use of Data .................................................................................................................. 14 3.1.3 Conversion of data into physically executable actions ................................................ 16 3.1.4 Support Systems........................................................................................................... 17 3.1.5 AR/VR ......................................................................................................................... 25 3.1.6 Mixed Reality............................................................................................................... 29 3.1.7 Artificial narrow intelligence ....................................................................................... 38 3.2 Business Enablers ............................................................................................................... 40 3.2.1 Operational Improvements ........................................................................................... 40 3.2.2 Growth Drivers ............................................................................................................ 42 3.3 Societal Evolution Enablers ................................................................................................ 45 3.3.1 Smart Grid .................................................................................................................... 47 3.3.2 Connected car............................................................................................................... 48 3.3.3 Smart homes................................................................................................................. 50 3.3.4 Smart cities................................................................................................................... 53 3.3.5 Next generation education ........................................................................................... 54 3.3.6 Connected healthcare ................................................................................................... 56 3.3.7 Sharing Economy ......................................................................................................... 57 3.3.8 Automation of everything ............................................................................................ 59 3.3.9 Healthy-life extension .................................................................................................. 62 3.3.10 Money 2.0 .................................................................................................................. 63 3.3.11 Circular Economy ...................................................................................................... 64 3.3.12 Artificial Intelligence Variants .................................................................................. 66 1 3.3.13 Human 2.0 .................................................................................................................. 73 3.3.14 Human machine convergence .................................................................................... 78 3.3.15 Decentralization of everything ................................................................................... 79 3.3.16 Democracy 2.0 ........................................................................................................... 81 3.3.17 Radical life extension ................................................................................................. 82 4 The economics of the Digital Transformation ........................................................................... 85 4.1 More efficiency > Market Value Shrinks ........................................................................... 85 4.2 Data is not the new oil ........................................................................................................ 86 4.3 Harvesting data value .......................................................................................................... 87 4.4 Knowledge value versus data value .................................................................................... 89 4.5 Leveraging on Data ............................................................................................................. 91 4.5.1 Digital Twins Market ................................................................................................... 94 4.5.2 Digital Twins as independent economic entities ......................................................... 95 4.5.3 Cognitive Digital Twins ............................................................................................... 98 4.6 The Future of Data Value ................................................................................................. 105 4.7 Distributed Ledger ............................................................................................................ 106 4.7.1 Blockchain ................................................................................................................. 107 4.7.2 Smart Contracts .......................................................................................................... 108 4.7.3 Oracles ....................................................................................................................... 109 4.8 Gig Economy .................................................................................................................... 110 4.8.1 The rise of high skill/high knowledge Gig Economy ................................................ 112 4.8.2 The Gig Economy of Machines ................................................................................. 113 4.8.3 The Pandemic Impact on the Gig Economy .............................................................. 129 5 The geography of the Digital Transformation ......................................................................... 133 5.1 Western Countries (Europe/North America) .................................................................... 133 5.1.1 EU .............................................................................................................................. 133 5.1.2 Austria ........................................................................................................................ 134 5.1.3 Estonia........................................................................................................................ 141 5.1.4 Italy ............................................................................................................................ 141 5.1.5 US .............................................................................................................................. 143 5.2 Latin America ................................................................................................................... 144 5.2.1 Argentina.................................................................................................................... 148 2 5.2.2 Brazil ........................................................................................................................... 149 5.2.3 Colombia .................................................................................................................... 150 5.2.4 Mexico ....................................................................................................................... 151 5.2.5 Panama ...................................................................................................................... 151 5.2.6 Uruguay ...................................................................................................................... 152 5.3 Far South East Asia ........................................................................................................... 153 5.3.1 China .........................................................................................................................