In the very near future, the question of technology will be ubiquitous to all product development. Our entire society has been on a rapid transformative curve since the early 1990s.
The internet ushered in a game-changing era of being armed and connected to instant information and knowledge, reshaping the way we live, work, and recreate.
Now, with the integration of artificial intelligence, machine learning, virtual reality, augmented reality, and the robust infrastructure of quantum computing, technology is poised to play the role of disrupter. Let’s look at each of the three early sectors I mentioned.
The way we live has shifted to 24/7 constant connectivity, tethered to our phones. Fact-checking and verifying statements has become easier, allowing for faster, more informed decision-making and increasing the demand for impulse purchasing with top-of-mind product placement and echo chambers of like-minded people on the internet. Access to information has made customer service even more critical and product quality expectations much more demanding.
We are now beginning to see the impacts of this shift on our workplaces. AI, coupled with advanced robotics, is allowing many industries, from fast food to manufacturing, to shed jobs in favor of machine automation. Examples of jobs soon to be extinct include data entry, bookkeeping, taxi drivers, restaurant order takers, warehouse stockers, telephone product support, warehouse and inventory loading, restocking and order processing, shipping and receiving clerks, and even secretarial and office admin jobs. The next big growth spurt is marrying technology to healthcare delivery systems.
Perhaps the greatest boon will be entertainment and the outlet for fun and satisfying options to provide us with high quality of life activities in our leisure and free time. All three segments of life, work, and recreation are now seamlessly interconnected. WiFi has given us low-cost, continuous connectivity to our arsenal of tech tools and toys.
In the not-too-distant future, our typical worker will come home to a modest domicile due to shrinking wage growth, burgeoning hyperinflation, and rising housing costs. They will escape into a virtual and augmented fantasy life that centers on their desires, interests, and biased opinions in the privacy of their home. Sentient arrival intelligence models will create characters to interact with them and become our internal support system. While this may lead to less one-on-one socializing and more problematic integration of younger generations into mainstream society, escapism is on the rise as people seek to shed the monotony of day-to-day life. This allows the marketplace to be customized to consumers’ unique tastes, ideals, expectations, and affordability.
The future of high tech is that it will become so commonplace that it will be a major portion of all support functions we develop for humanity. Every product and service will be augmented and fully integrated into the robust technology infrastructure being built and deployed today. With automatic upgrades now commonplace, keeping pace with new features and refinements is efficient and simple. Our worlds evolve and upgrade while we sleep, with constant improvement being the brutal fact of maintaining products and services by using the internet to import changes to users as they are rolled out.
Technological advances are affecting the future of work in three key ways: by scaling and speeding up human capabilities, substituting labor with machines, and enabling new ways to access and supply labor. Digital workers handle the tasks employees shouldn’t have to do, while customers get more personalized, digital self-service options. This tech can allow more people to choose to remain mobile rather than having to live near a physical place of work. This movement, called Digital Nomads, is prevalent in the current Gen Z demographic, who have grown up with access to technology their entire lives and have no fear of integrating it into their own lives.
A recent Price Waterhouse Coopers report highlights the key factors that communities must consider to attract this new era of untethered, digitally savvy workers and entrepreneurs. These include making the locale safe from crime, visually appealing from the street, enabling cost-effective connectivity to the grid from anywhere within the community, ensuring high-performing schools, providing good drinking water, and offering options for leisure time. Lastly, governance should not be too wildly postured in either direction of the political landscape. It’s almost like Norman Rockwell meets George Orwell.
What attracts high-tech investment now? Some things rarely change: a great, highly productive, and technology-savvy workforce, safety, and good drinking water.
The current pulse on tech is that we are publicly very critical of its invasiveness in our lives; however, privately, we are becoming more and more virtually cocooned in our own generative AI-fueled personal escape choices. We no longer worry about how much TV time people spend or how much they are online working; it’s more personal now. We have 24/7 connectivity, and we can’t stand when we are decoupled from our new best friend in the metaverse.
Companies are now trying to figure out the next big leap or combinations of hop, skip, and jump. The average high-tech user is coming to grips with the deconstruction of past life experiences and rebuilding themselves as skilled, digitally savvy artisans of some expertise or other skilled trade. Tech-savvy workers simply have more options than the rest of the workforce. Factories will get closer and closer to becoming robotic mills filled with AI-driven automation to handle most, if not all, production, assembly, and distribution functions. Autonomous vehicles for loaders, forklifts, and inventory management are already here.
In this new landscape, people can purchase virtual real estate in the style that suits them, be it a mansion next to a famous celebrity like Snoop Dog or many other options, maybe a hot urban loft, or creative concepts like castles or treehouses.
This digital choice revolution has already swept through the hospitality market. The marriage of self-managed holiday residences that can provide themed or personally rewarding vacation destinations has taken off through the roof, fueled by innovations in smart home technology. If we aren’t using our property, someone else might want to use it. The next big shift will be repurposing old buildings in city centers into new tech-upgraded, small, divisible occupancy units, which could generate a new influx back into the cities. Demographic out-migration has been set on urban flight mostly due to safety, schools, poor governance, and lack of affordability for younger generations. This could be reversed by drawing them into newly repurposed living spaces tied to creature comfort amenities and features such as coffee shops, bistros, and cafes where atmosphere is important to the chill factor of these new digital legions.
To further illustrate the concept of the new digital worker and the infrastructure that appeals to them, let’s consider the real-world example of my own son. He moved to Colombia to launch his new tech company and lived in a penthouse three-story building with a rooftop pool and jacuzzi, maid service, a chef to prepare food for the week, and a full-time doorman. The unit had six master bedrooms, and the residents shared the game room, TV room, kitchen, and dining rooms. There were five other digital nomads living there as well. Each of them paid $800 per month for this luxurious lifestyle. The vast majority of his roommates were either Western European, Canadian, or United States citizens. The growing tsunami of digital nomads has surpassed 50 million worldwide and is growing exponentially each year. These mobile workers bring discretionary income to the communities they choose to live in. The new digital wealth generation opportunities are spreading out and finding low cost locales with high quality of life options.
As more young professionals embrace the digital nomad lifestyle, we can expect to see a rise in these kinds of technologically integrated living and working spaces. They cater to the unique needs and preferences of this new workforce, providing not just the practical necessities, but also the immersive, personalized experiences that define the future of living and working in a high-tech world. The competition for attracting these workers will not diminish; it will be amplified in this new era.
About the Author: Don A. Holbrook is a 25-year veteran economic development site location and incentive consultant. He and his team have worked on projects across North America and around the globe. His focus is primarily on place-based economic development tourism strategies and designing the team and products that communities’ can use to attract such investments. He lives in Las Vegas, Nevada and has written five, best-selling books speaking frequently around the world at professional functions. He has been featured on CBS, NBC, Fox, ABC, PBS television and radio networks, and in LA Times, USA Today, New York Times, Washington Post, FDI (the Economist Group) and many local television, print and radio interviews. He has been one of the North American Judges for FDI Magazine for the past six years on The Best Community Economies for Growth & Investment. He is a former board of director of the International Economic Development Council, and Fellow Member of IEDC, as well as Certified Economic Developer.
