By Vlad Andrianov 28th Jul

Aussie digital future, as seen by IBM

Do you have a plan for 2050? It looks like I do now.

IBM thinks I’m gonna be immersed in all things digital: most likely I will stop commuting & will work from my smart home at least half the time, I’ll be receiving information on contact lenses, my skin will become a touchpad and I will not be reading magazines as they are now. All that will be powered by high-speed broadband with speeds of up to 10 Gbps.

Ones and zeros

The door into the Aussie Digital future creeps open thanks to IBM’s new report “A Snapshot of Australia’s Digital Future to 2050”. And it’s claimed to be the first of its kind in the world to rate a nation’s entire industries against the impact of ICT (information and communications technology).

It predicts that Australia will no longer depend on the export of natural resources & will start exporting services such as education, tourism, health and business services. And tourism alone will match current mineral exports by 2030, totalling nearly $175 billion.

No more print?

Here’s the scary part. 10% of Australia’s 509 industries will most definitely meet their demise, unless they reinvent themselves. Traditional retailing will be one of the first to go.

IBM believes that the introduction of ubiquitous high-speed broadband, analytics, learning systems and cognitive computing will “enable producers to target end-consumers without the need for middlemen”.

Other casualties are likely to be: newspaper, magazine and book publishing (to be replaced by online); and radio, TV and cable (to be absorbed into Internet).

Our future’s been IBM’d

Aussies will see boundaries blurred “between work and leisure, public and private, technological and human”. Social media, community and customer collaboration will be embedded into the very fabric of business practices.

This upcoming digital setup is predicted to combat the “tyranny of distance”, will increase our life spans and trigger new wave of internationalism.

It’s a pity there’s not a word about hover cars though.

Download IBM’s full report here