Introduction
Technological advances have improved service quality and radically transformed the traditional manufacturing industry. However, companies need to stay abreast with technological trends to improve their competitiveness. As you had initially requested, I am submitting two article summaries on future technological trends to indicate new opportunities for growth and development at the company. This memo entails abridgments of two articles’ findings on future technological trends and outlines their implications.
Article 1 Summary
Davenport, T., Guha, A., Grewal, D., & Bressgott, T. (2020). How artificial intelligence will change the future of marketing. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 48, 24–42. Web.
The authors’ goal was to propose a framework detailing how artificial intelligence (AI) will change customer behaviors and marketing strategies in the future. Davenport et al. (2020) suggest that AI will influence future business models, marketing strategies, and sales and customer service processes. For example, driverless cars will change business models in the transportation industry. The market demand for some services in the industry will change. For instance, the demand for automobile insurances and breathalyzers will decrease as few people will drive. On the other hand, the demand for security systems to protect cars from being hacked will increase. AI systems will mediate Tele conversations and initiate contact with sales prospects. With enhanced prediction capability, these systems will accurately predict a customer’s preferences, allowing retailers to focus on promoting shipping rather than shopping experiences. This shift will also change the focus of future marketing strategies.
AI systems will also present several challenges, including data privacy issues, bias, and human disconnection with retailer activities. Customers’ preferences may differ from past shopping behaviors, and AI might make it difficult for them to overcome these behaviors. For example, AI-targeted Ads might prevent consumers that want to stop eating fast foods from doing so. Additionally, clients might negatively or positively perceive AI depending on cultural factors. Therefore, the authors recommend that AI will best serve retailers and customers when it augments humans rather than replace them. Customer experiences can be enhanced when a human/salesperson mediates the AI-human interaction.
Article 2 Summary
Routray, S. K., Jha, M. K., Sharma, L., Nyamangoudar, R., Javali, A., & Sarkar, S. (2017). Quantum cryptography for IoT: A perspective [Conference paper]. 2017 International Conference on IoT and Application (ICIOT), Nagapattinam, India. Web.
Internet of Things (IoT) is one of the biggest markets for big data applications and is commonly used by financial, banking, transportation, and logistics companies. However, a common weakness presented by these systems is vulnerability to privacy and security threats. The study conducted by Routray et al. (2017) distinguishes quantum cryptography as a long-term solution to these systems’ security issues. The authors predict that IoT will be widely deployed across various sectors, including healthcare, where it will handle legally sensitive information such as people’s health information. They also project that all cryptographic technologies sustaining current IoT systems will fail except for quantum cryptography. The technologies will fail because quantum computers, expected to be available in the market soon, have advanced decryption capabilities, making IoTs vulnerable to hacking.
The researchers indicate that there is currently no visible solution as effective as quantum cryptography that can solve these future security threats. Even hybrid networks used in subscriber communication lines do not have the same security levels as quantum cryptography (QC). According to Routray et al. (2017), quantum cryptography is built on Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle and photon polarization principle to ensure “secret communication” between two trusted parties. Features built on the uncertainty principle and photon polarization principle will enable QC to prevent eavesdropping attempts. QC will allow IoTs to detect intercepted keys and eliminate them without any consequences.
Conclusion
The world is heading towards the fifth industrial revolution characterized by enhanced collaboration between smart systems and humans. AI systems will change marketing strategies, business models, and customer behaviors. However, these systems’ deployment will also present significant security threats; however, quantum cryptography offers a long-term solution to this problem. The company should consider quantum cryptography as its data security system and build a workforce whose skills align with AI capabilities to improve its technological performance.