In each historical period, the Industrial Revolutions transformed ways of life. The Fourth Industrial Revolution is the era where data and artificial intelligence set the course of society and the economy

Technology has undoubtedly marked the pulse of humanity's progress with changes that transformed societies and economies, marking true epochal changes.

In the First Industrial Revolution - which emerged in the mid-18th century - the main protagonist was the steam engine powered by mineral coal. This was the support that allowed the industry to be promoted, since it allowed old artisanal tools to be replaced by other types of more productive machinery and to replace the energy of both people and animals with that of machines. Mechanization marked this era. All of this allowed large industrial production conglomerates to be created, mainly in food and textiles and later in steel and mining. It is the time of the rise of the bourgeoisie, the emergence of the working middle class and large-scale urbanization with factories as the center of community life. 

The Second Industrial Revolution began in the mid-19th century and lasted until the start of the First World War. This is a time when new forms of energy such as oil emerge. The modernization of means of transportation was another important technological development, with the railroad as the protagonist and larger, faster steamships. These means facilitated the transportation of a greater number of people and goods over long distances and in less time. The principles of the scientific method also began to be adopted in factories, mainly on assembly lines, the platform of mass production: at the beginning of the 20th century, Henry Ford mass produced the innovative Ford Model T, a car with a gasoline engine. gasoline. All these changes allowed us to achieve a new type of companies marked by inventory production, low costs and pyramidal organization. Other mythical inventions that marked the era are the telegraph, the telephone and the cinema.

The beginning of the Third Industrial Revolution is marked approximately in the second half of the 20th century, crossed by experimentation with atomic energy and materials such as plastic. Production on demand and the logic of disposal mark this era. It is the era where organizations manage to transcend borders and grow to become global multinationals. But it is also called the “Digital Revolution” because it lays the foundations for what is to come: in the 1950s the development of microelectronics began. Computing is growing with more and more prominence, and the information that was previously consumed or transmitted analogically was replaced by digital media. This revolution is what lays the foundations for the exponential digital transformation that will come later, in which companies seek to improve operational processes, the creation of new business models and the integration of the customer experience through technology. 

The Fourth Industrial Revolution refers to the current moment. The first time the term was mentioned was in 2011, relating it to the changes brought by ICTs (information and communication technologies), especially the Internet. Also known as industry 4.0, the great change of this new era is that such high levels of intercommunication and data exchange have never been achieved before.

In his book about this revolution, Dr. Klaus Schwab describes it as: “Characterized by a much more mobile and global Internet, by smaller and more powerful sensors, and by artificial intelligence and machine learning.” In fact, it is the great era where Silicon Valley sets the pace, with Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon as major protagonists, rapidly and radically transforming the way in which people live, work, communicate and making everything they dream of come true. It began in the middle of the 20th century.

Key drivers of change include the decreasing cost of computing, connected devices, and the ease of implementing artificial intelligence algorithms. It is the era where “X as a service” or “everything as a service” abounds, that is, any technological resource or activity can be contracted in a service format and accessed through the cloud. 5G, robotics and the Internet of Things collaborate with the development of autonomous devices, intelligent assistants and all kinds of innovations that transform the physical, digital and even biological world.

Although sometimes the Fourth Revolution and the digital revolution seem to be confused, there are three differentiating factors: the large volume of information that is handled, the high variability of this information and the speed with which it is required to be processed, in order to guarantee high quality standards. In fact, we are producing data exponentially: the volume of data we create, capture, copy and consume has increased by almost 5000% over the last decade while IDC predicts that the data we generate in the next three years will overcome largely those of the last 30 years.

All this raises customer expectations, demanding quick responses, personalized and intelligent service. Data are precisely the food for artificial intelligence to improve care models. Machine learning algorithms can analyze variables and improve business performance, for example by anticipating customer needs. 

But looking at isolated technologies does not provide a significant advantage to achieve this scenario; their interrelation with strategic objectives and alternative perspectives is the key. To be in tune with the demands of Industry 4.0, companies need to migrate from a transactional model to a relationship model, built around services and experiences that have data as their core.

In this context, the main message is that companies need to have organized data, know the customer and understand what need the offer responds to, what the ecosystem is and how the company's information flows could be optimized to align with it. Before digitizing, you must organize, this is the epochal mandate for business.

Julio Cesar Blanco – August 30, 2022