Deloitte: Executives are optimistic about Industry 4.0 but lack confidence in their organizations’ influence

Senior business executives and government agency leaders from around the world lack confidence in their organizations’ readiness to influence and harness the opportunities offered by the Fourth Industrial Revolution (Industry 4.0), according to a research report by Deloitte Global entitled “The Fourth Industrial Revolution is Here—Are You Ready?”

Industry 4.0 represents the combination of physical and digital technologies, such as analytics, artificial intelligence, cognitive computing and the internet of things (IoT). Deloitte Global surveyed 1,600 C-level executives across 19 countries and conducted select in-person interviews to explore their readiness to leverage Industry 4.0 to benefit customers, employees, communities and other key stakeholders.

“On the back of the development of e-government, robotics and automatization of the industrial sectors and the transfer of services from traditional to digital services, we estimate that around 60 percent of the existing jobs in Romania will be impacted by the digital economy,”  said Dinu Bumbacea, partner-in-charge Deloitte Romania. “Any industrial revolution has had an impact on the workforce. However if the previous industrial revolutions had a long lasting impact on generations, the digital economy is impacting significant effects on shorter periods of time. It’s a time of great opportunity, but also of risk.”

The research was made to better understand how executives are navigating the pervasive shift and to uncover areas where they can more effectively influence how the Fourth Industrial Revolution impacts their organizations and society.

The questions focused on four major topics: social impact, strategy, talent/workforce, and technology. The survey results indicate that while executives conceptually understand the changes Industry 4.0 will bring, they are less certain how they should act to benefit from those changes.

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In each of the four areas of impact, the survey uncovered some degree of contradiction: Social Impact: Optimism versus ownership, Strategy: Static versus dynamic,  Talent/Workforce: Evolution versus revolution,  Technology: Challenged versus prepared.

The research revealed that, overall, executives around the world are in the early stages of readying their organizations to harness the full potential of Industry 4.0. They will need to seize opportunities to strengthen key connections that will benefit their clients, their people, their organizations, their communities and society more broadly.