According to the Fujitsu Future Insights Global Digital Transformation Survey Report 2019, nearly 90% of companies in a recent survey are already deep into their digital transformation efforts. While the survey did find broad movement toward digital transformation, there existed wide differences in the progress of transformation across industries.
If digital transformation progress were a horse race across industries, financial services and transportation would be running neck and neck. While, overall, companies reported 36% progress in their digital transformations, 47% of financial services firms and 45% of transformation companies said they have moved forward with digital transformations and have delivered positive outcomes. From there, the government reported 35%, manufacturing 32%, healthcare 31% and wholesale/retail 29%.
Fujitsu’s findings are based on 900 respondents from nine countries. Interestingly, only 13% of those surveyed said their companies have yet to get started with their digital transformations.
Not surprisingly, online businesses are moving along more quickly with their digital transformations than brick-and-mortar businesses. While online businesses comprised 33% of the survey respondents and brick-and-mortar 67%, online businesses have made more progress in digital transformation. Of the online companies, 91% are implementing a digital transformation, with more than half achieving positive outcomes.
One of the more concerning findings from the Future Insights Global Digital Transformation Survey Report was the lack of trust toward online data. A considerable 70% of respondents found it difficult to judge if online information is trustworthy, and 59% were concerned that the data they use may have been falsified.
“Concern about personal data is also high, with 72% of respondents saying that they are worried organizations exploit personal data without their permission,” the report said. “However, more than half of respondents are content to provide personal data to an organization if they can trust the organization and in cases where personal data is used to enhance products and services.”
In addition to a lack of trust toward data, respondents are also unsure about AI-made decisions. “Sixty-three percent of respondents think that decisions made by AI are fair because AI is not subject to bias. However, 52% of respondents claimed they couldn’t trust AI because data can be incorrect or biased.”
However, 60% of respondents said they would trust decisions made by AI if the AI shows substantial reasons for reaching the decisions, and 66% indicated they would trust a company that published a code of ethics governing the use of AI.
“Companies in which management places an emphasis on long-term perspectives, practices empathic leadership by sharing their messages and passion with employees, and empowers their staff tend to achieve greater success in their journeys toward digital transformation,” the survey found.
While respondents to this survey indicate moving forward toward their digital transformation objectives, as we recently covered in Digital Transformations Fall Short, Survey Claims, the Kony Digital Experience 2019 Index Survey concluded that businesses are “still missing the mark” with consumers despite nearly $5 trillion in digital investment. The report didn’t distinguish how the $5 trillion was being spent and in what areas of the business the investments were made.
That report found that said organizations in banking (54%), retail (59%) and utilities (51%) are keeping pace with their expectations but are not delivering differentiated digital experiences. The big laggard was health care, with only 48% keeping pace and 20% being behind respondents’ expectations.
