The interesting thing about both aspects is that each time the initial steps are taken is very similar. Once the problem to be solved has been identified, the next step is to determine the tools that will be used to solve it. A solution that will have several, if not all, of the following elements: sensors (read devices of the so-called Internet of Things), analytics services, cloud storage services.
Once this stage is completed, we find ourselves with the reiterative calls for a transversal digital transformation. In other words, it is to take that initial formula to all the segments of the economy, crossing them as if they were a spider web that can share information between all the points it connects.
At this point, the equation becomes more complex because of the transversality of the 4.0 economy we begin to add security protocols and other limitations that are imposed by the legal framework of the jurisdiction where the sensors will be present that will collaborate in carrying out bureaucratic processes.
All good from a perspective focused on productivity and efficiency. However, in the world of technology and economics, nothing is as simple as it seems. First, let's consider that all of these more efficient processes can be categorized into two broad groups: enabling technologies and replacement technologies.
As you can imagine, replacement technologies are those that make certain jobs obsolete, leaving in their wake individuals who have to be retrained in other skills so that they can re-enter the workforce again. Of course, it is not that simple, since the psychological and social consequences of this process can be quite cruel for those people who do not have the necessary guidance or support to reinvent themselves at work and look for a new job.
The other extreme is enabling technologies, those that create job opportunities for individuals who are already in the place of their deployment, since they collaborate with the worker, increasing their productivity and, therefore, their value to their employer.
What is striking about this process is that historically, from the time of the Roman Empire to the present day, those most impacted by replacement processes are those workers with fewer skills and education.
In the past, rulers could choose to continue with inefficient processes and reject the implementation of new technologies, fearing that the political cost of a growing number of unemployed could threaten their mandate. Experiences like this can be found both in the imperial era of Rome and in the kingdoms of Poland and England during the Middle Ages, to name a few examples.
How to face the inevitable automation of the coming years?
In other latitudes, governments have been exploring ways to update and enhance people's education and thus address both the new number of unemployed careers that gradually become obsolete (it is important to note that it is not an immediate process but rather a slow one) and simultaneously create the necessary structures to provide the necessary tools and skills that the new labor force, the one that arises as a result of automation, must attend.
It is precisely at this point where the famous transversality, which is preached as part of the famous digital transformation, must be implemented. Governments must review their initiatives and begin to design pedagogical and training schemes that respond to the great transformations that the labor field is going through. From the establishment of technical schools for the retraining of workers to increase the number of technical careers offered in the market.
The work is complex and should not be limited to focusing on universities or other tertiary study centers, but rather start teaching digital skills from primary school.
In other words, there can be no digital transformation and the success of a national connectivity strategy cannot be expected if it does not contain education as its backbone. At the end of the day, the main resource that countries have is not their devices or the technology of their telecommunications infrastructure, but rather the human capital they have.
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