A World of Disruption: How Artificial Intelligence and Climate Change will change the Business World - and the world itself.

There are two major, almost universally recognized, forces that will change the world in the coming years and decades. They represent both significant risks and major opportunities at every level of society. And businesses will fail or will prosper depending on how quickly they react to both driving forces.

Two disruptive forces that will transform the global economy

Artificial intelligence has been around for decades but is now accelerating at a speed that no-one predicted. Climate change has been around even longer, and its effects are also being seen today, but its far-reaching consequences are less tangible and for politicians and businesses it is sometimes seen as a long-term problem and in a world of short-term results, therefore not as urgent.

But both are urgent, and both will accelerate their influence on all key decisions in the coming years. The corporate world will be disrupted and slow movers addressing these phenomena, will find themselves out of business.

In a series of articles over the coming year, Livingstone will address the profound effects of these developments, delving into sectors where we transact, to show the risks and the opportunities that will change the make-up of the corporate world. Many times, these disruptive forces will work separately in creating threats to business models. Oftentimes they will work together to foment innovations that will allow entrepreneurs to build totally new business models and strategies, whilst savvy current businesses will adept and evolve their processes to survive in an incredibly changing environment.

Innovation, sustainability, and the urgency to adapt

The increase in the adoption of artificial intelligence and machine learning will lead to profound changes in the automation of industrial processes and their related logistics, Quantum computing, sensors and robotics will all be key in revolutionizing these processes.

Artificial intelligence will also have a profound influence on service companies. Retailers, consultants, financial institutions, the healthcare and education sectors will all experience massive changes, both internally and in their relationship with clients.

Personalized customer experiences will develop across these industries and will be much more accurate, and advertising ever more precise. Health care treatments will be tailored, as will education, with artificial intelligence providing tutor-like assistance to a wide range of students.

All of these applications rely on data. Capturing reliable data is fundamental to enhanced productivity and client interaction. The use of sensors and smart metering in industry combined with software algorithms, testing systems and speed of analysis, will be ever more critical in industry, research and development and service industries. The data bases created will deliver accurate and timely feedback, and the accuracy of the received information will challenge a huge number of current business models. Predictive maintenance will refocus the maintenance departments of industries, practically instant information about accounts, legal documents and management strategies will question the need for armies of consultants. Reimagining industries and reskilling the workforce will be an obligation not a choice.

The obtention of accurate data and the analysis of the same will also be critical in fighting and adapting to climate change.

Tightening government regulations and customer preferences and pressure will mean that companies must design responses that comply with and reflect this new reality. Although renewable energy is the most obvious development in recent years, data generation and analysis will allow a much more tailored response to some of these challenges.

Where possible, transforming industrial processes to run on electricity and the optimization of the same, will be vital. The increase in electrified forms of transport will continue to grow and using data analytics to both anticipate the use of the electric grid and streamline transport routes will be essential. Much data supplied in part by smart metering will also be used to persuade large companies to embark on the transformation of their businesses.

These monumental shifts in resource utilization and optimization through artificial intelligence and the internet of things, will generate a major number of corporate transactions as companies seek to implement and scale these innovations.

First movers and agile companies will see major increases in their valuations, and more importantly, will help solve some of the major challenges the world faces today and in the immediate future. Laggards will disappear.

Join us over the coming months as we discuss how individual sectors will feel the effects of these critical changes in how business is conducted and how business will lead the push for a response to climate change.