While there continues to be debate around the digital economy’, the ‘gig economy’ and the ‘Fourth Industrial Revolution’ – much of it is overhyped and needs to be demystified, says Aadil Patel, national practice head and director of the Employment practice at Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr (CDH) in South Africa.

Patel said that much of the discussion around digital transformation and the adoption of new technologies creates unnecessary hype and leads to fear mongering around employment.

“There seems to be a concern among a large number of people who fear that the implementation of new technology and new ways of doing work would lead to job cuts,” he said.

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“Well, it wouldn’t. Simply put, just like the fax, email and internet did not lead to redundancy, nor will digital transformation. People simply have to adapt and enhance their skills.”

From Business Tech.

Instead, organisations should drive the digital empowerment of their workforce as this will have a positive impact on growth.

“The implementation of technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and automation will not replace a human workforce, but it will take over repetitive tasks and free up people to perform more creative and interesting tasks.”

Patel pointed out that digital empowerment is also fundamentally important, as a new generation of tech-savvy people are entering the job market and companies will have no choice but to create a whole new space of work.

“Organisations need to start thinking differently about the concept of work. For instance, five years ago, we did not think that you could make money as a social media specialist, yet there is now a great demand for those type of skills,” he said.

Read more at Business Tech.