Why the Future is Simplification

Technology enables people to do amazing things. Advancements happening in the next five years in miniaturization, robotics, computing and processing power, machine learning, and wireless connectivity will change the way that businesses run and operate as we enter the 2030s. But as sophisticated and interconnected these new tech breakthroughs are going to be, the most important factor to making them successful is still the old adage: keep it simple.

Living in a 21st Century World

In 2015 Deloitte issued a report about trends in simplification for business. The research company identified five reasons why companies are craving simpler processes:

• Too many different pieces of software and processes to learn.
• Work spilling over from the traditional 9-to-5 workday.
• People preferring simpler technologies over more complex ones.
• Connecting work partners in different areas of the world.
• More administrative work is being required.

Deloitte is right about our needs to keep things simple. We’re getting more done each day thanks to better communication platforms. Big data analysis alerts companies to potential problems before they can become real problems. Having remote employees is almost a common for every business. Yet, all of these advancements in productivity are overburdening our brains, causing many workers to feel that work is always happening for them.

As things like machine learning and AI get better, people are going to want to offload more of what I’ll coin as “blue collar thinking” onto the software. Managers don’t need to know the minutia of several dozen tasks unless a problem arises. The focus in the future will be on achieving the goals and then bothering the person with notification of the achievement. This is already common practice in video games and in casinos. Gamification is the start of this trend.

The distribution industry is a leader in simplification. Parcels are picked, packaged and shipped from smart warehouses without the need for human beings to get in the way. Instead, the people are making better use of their time by observing at a macro level, supervising the process like an air traffic control operator from the observation tower.

Simplification of Work Means a Better Workday

The promise of a connected internet of things (IoT) – all of your machines communicating with each other, sharing data to achieve better productivity – will also be wrapped into the future era of simplification.

As people begin to have greater trust for blue collar thinking software solutions, there will likely be more time savings for companies and workers. The need for a human being to be in charge at the top of the process will still be there, and likely won’t be replaced unless AI makes some drastic breakthroughs. In effect, the workplace of the future will have its workers be supervisors and managers of software, robots and automation.

Under that umbrella, our society will be vastly improved. The resource of human beings, the most intelligent and versatile tool of all, will be unburdened from wasteful work. We will be getting more things manufactured, serviced, shipped, with less time, cost and increased productivity. White collar jobs will be nearly everywhere, and the machines will be the blue-collar workers.

If you want to position your business to be at the vanguard of this coming wave of change, look for the easiest solutions to your problems. That’s where our future lies.