How will digital technology will impact the economy this decade

Digital technologies have already had a significant impact on the digital economy and are expected to continue to shape its future. Here are some of the areas the Lab is working on:



1) Digital Business Models
New digital business models will continue to disrupting traditional industries, such as retail, entertainment, and transportation, by offering new and innovative products and services that are more convenient and efficient and personalized. These business models are challenging traditional economic models by allowing businesses to operate without physical boundaries, disrupting traditional supply chains, and enabling new forms of collaboration and innovation.

2) AI & The Future of Work
AI will facilitate the automation of jobs leading to increased productivity, efficiency, and cost savings for businesses. New job opportunities will arise but it is expected a reduction of jobs (skills gap) while we make the transition to new type of jobs that require different set of skills than the jobs that are being replaced. As the digital economy grows we expect more people to work from home and abandon the tipycal 5 days-per-week job.

3) Regulation & Compliance
Governements will introduce new rules and standards that businesses must follow when operating in the digital space. Areas such as Data Privacy, Cybersecurity, Consumer Protection, Antitrust laws and others will require companies, especially the larger ones to comply or face hefty fines, reputational damage or even loose the ability to operate.

4) Economic and Social Impact
On the economic side Digital technologies will help to increase productivity and eficiency throughout all sectors, helping to creat new business models but at the same time will led to the displacement of certain jobs and the widening of the skills gap. On the social side, these technologies will help to improve communication and access to information but also can create inequality if technology is controlled by a few companies. Social isolation and privacy concerns also constitute problems.

5) Impact on Education & Trainning
The impact of digital technologies will greatly increase in the comming years especially because of Generative AI. Personalized learning will start replacing traditional education, and lifelong learning, soft and digital skills will be more important. Overall access to education will also improve, especially due to the shortenning Digital Divide. AI can also turn education more efficient by analyzing student performance data to identify areas where they need additional support and provide feedback to help students improve.

6) Impact on Financial Markets
Digital technologies will have a greater impact on Financial Markets especially due to AI. Most impact areas are Algorithmic Trading with access to large data quanities and complex predictive models; Risk Management where AI can analyze market data and identify potential risks in real-time and finally Fraud Detection where AI can be used to detect and prevent fraudulent activities in financial markets. Also Blockchain can revolutionize financial markets by enabling secure and transparent transactions without the need for intermediaries.

Overall, virtually all sectors of the economy, and the rate of adoption will create many inequalities since different regions and countries will adopt each technology at its own pace. Checkout what are the main sectors impacted below.