The World Economic Forum and Deloitte examine key applications of 4IR technologies for thriving in a postpandemic world and identify governance challenges that these technologies can help to address.
The recovery from COVID-19 has started a wave of innovations in work, collaboration, distribution and service delivery—and shifted many customer behaviours, habits and expectations. Several of the emerging technologies of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) including Artificial Intelligence (AI), mobility (including autonomous vehicles), blockchain, drones and the Internet of Things (IoT) have been at the centre of these innovations and are likely to play an outsized role in what emerges postpandemic. Working together, the public and private sectors have the opportunity to nurture 4IR technology development while mitigating the risks of unethical or malicious uses. How governments and other stakeholders approach the governance of 4IR technologies will play an important role in how we reset society, the economy and the business environment. The World Economic Forum and Deloitte’s latest report examines the opportunities and complications of governance for a set of 4IR technologies: AI, mobility, blockchain, drones and IoT.
Each individual technology presents their own unique set of governance challenges, much of which is detailed in the full version of this study. Our analysis also revealed a host of common challenges across the five 4IR technologies we focussed on. While many pre-dated COVID-19, the pandemic and its aftermath has accelerated the urgency of addressing them.
To address these and other challenges, innovative governance and regulatory frameworks are emerging to support the technologies of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Our analysis found several common themes across the areas of technology discussed in this report.
Read the full report Global technology governance report 2021: Harnessing 4IR technologies in a COVID-19 world.
Read Deloitte’s executive summary with key highlights from the report.