In fairly short order, robots have begun taking over in the corporate world -- infiltrating finance departments, some other functions, and operational areas in a number of industries. For the most part, robots are being deployed to automate repeatable, standardized, or logical tasks historically handled by people.
Modern business not only relies on IT, but in fact is made possible by IT. If you believe that, then surely the fact that "IT" and "the business" are often at loggerheads appears to be insane. But the fact is that the divide and the rancor persist.
If you manage factories, airlines, hospitals or farms, you probably know something about the Internet of Things. If you don't, your thoughts on the IoT may start and end with wondering why a coffeepot needs to talk to a toaster. But the fact is that the continuing development of precision technologies could dramatically transform our planet's fundamental infrastructure.
The explosive growth of online retailing over the last 20 years has increased the pressure on states to seek to enforce sales and use taxes on online purchases.
Thanks to the constant stream of mega-breaches, cybersecurity has moved from the server room to the boardroom. While it's become evident that cyber defense requires board-level input and attention, translating deeply technical cybersecurity and risk factors into business terms has been an ongoing struggle.
It won't be long before smart devices are as ubiquitous as smartphones are today. Wearables and home appliances like Nest's smart thermostat have already taken off with consumers.
A large number of U.S. companies that are experiencing growth are also making moves to cut costs that are more typical of businesses in distress, according to a new Deloitte survey.
Across many industries, both business planning and key decision-making are increasingly informed by big data. As pressure mounts to match business operations to the record pace of current, aggressive market innovation, more organizations are looking to base decisions on hard numbers in order to mitigate risk and raise return. But faulty interpretation of data invites error in deriving and applying insights.
Pressure is building on companies to disclose more information about their climate-related risks, but it remains to be seen whether such calls will actually pose a burden for more than a handful of isolated companies.