Our survey respondents highlighted AI as being the technology garnering maximum interest in the C-suite with 90% of respondents considering it a critical (36%) or very important (54%) part of their digital strategies. Edge services are also gaining traction as 5G becomes a reality in many countries, and 60% of the respondents consider it critical (35%) or very important (25%) to their strategies. Despite this growing interest and adoption of AI and Edge services, very few enterprises actually recognize the impact that these technologies can have on embedding intelligence and innovation into the business. Instead, the key drivers for adoption continue to be operational efficiency or cost driven. This limited perspective of a digital strategy and the inability to assign appropriate business value to emerging technologies will continue to constrain growth.

• Interest in emerging technologies continues to grow with these technologies becoming critical parts of enterprise digital strategy.
• While Edge services and AI continue to find prime position in the digital initiatives of enterprises, interest in blockchain continues to revolve around niche applications in the absence of large, enterprise-wide implementation success-stories.
• Acceleration of Edge services uptake in the enterprise is driven by its applicability in processing and analyzing data at the edge, thereby improving data visibility and real-time analytics, and its ability to secure information.
• Leveraging AI to drive decision making, improve customer experience and innovate around products and services are key drivers that are spurring enterprises to invest in the space.
• There are several hurdles that businesses face as they try to find ways to further adoption of emerging technologies the chief of which is the lack of adequate skills in the workforce and the challenges of articulating and measuring the value that these bring.

• Edge Services – In many countries, the virus is expected to peak in May or June and lockdowns are already being extended beyond what was originally planned. Some experts even anticipate the virus to linger on well into the summer. This has already wiped out two quarters of economic growth and reopening the economy in 2020 may not be enough to offset the decline. There is a probability that the global economy could enter a recession, which means consumers won’t upgrade their phones and service providers will certainly revisit their 5G rollout plans, maybe even freeze their 5G rollouts and cut their capex to preserve free cash flow. Given that Edge Services depend heavily on the ability of CSPs to rollout 5G networks, the delays in such rollouts will negatively impact enterprise adoption of Edge services. This is not to be taken as loss of interest in the space, but delays and postponement of programs around Edge Services should be anticipated.
• Blockchain – As the race to discover a vaccine or viable treatment plan for the COVID-19 virus accelerates, researchers across the world are tapping into the power of the distributed ledger technology also called blockchain to find ways to share data. Whether it be efforts to monitor infected individuals, contact tracing or share research data. For instance, researchers at the Villanova University are developing a permissioned blockchain that can be used by doctors to track infected patients and share that data, helping prevent future clusters of contagion. German startup Spherity has developed a decentralized identity system to help patients maintain social distance while getting medication; while Honduran authorities have deployed a blockchain-backed app to track and manage stay-at-home orders. There is still a long way to go for blockchain to become mainstream, but as the technology continues to prove its mettle in real-life scenarios, interest in wider application of the technology will likely gather steam as we come out of the pandemic.
• Artificial Intelligence – AI in combination with robotic process automation (RPA) is emerging as the hero as the entire outsourcing industry workforce is under lockdown or at the least facing severe restrictions to movement. AI and RPA not only allow businesses to save on costs, but also offer a viable option in the form of bots that can take over repeatable tasks and support self-service channels. Companies will leverage AI to simulate live work environments and create on-demand labor forces, detect new consumption patterns and deliver “hyper-personalized” products and services. If anything, adoption of AI in the enterprise will accelerate post-pandemic as enterprises seek to leverage data and adapt to changing consumer and workforce trends.