Trends

Answer: Your question is especially relevant as it requires us to switch the focus from the short-term news cycle and focus on less obvious longer-term trends. It is fascinating, and often rewarding to study innovation and changes as they disrupt and influence impact business models and the success of companies. Four areas displaying rapid changes are health care, trade, food, and technology. 

1. In health care, obesity drugs are in focus. These revolutionary drugs can increase well-being and improve the health of the overall population. There are less obvious consequences reaching beyond health benefits such as economic advancement. New anti-obesity drugs could raise Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by 0.40% according to a report from Goldman Sachs. Poor health lowers productivity levels and reduces employment participation numbers. The positive health and economic benefits of the weight loss drugs will reduce numbers of early deaths, disability and absenteeism while contributing to overall health and well-being. Top pharmaceutical companies are keeping their research and development pipelines full. The economic ripple effects will be profound.

2. Global trade and supply chains are also in the spotlight. Not too many years ago there were lively conversations at the Marco dog park about how local manufacturers were shifting production offshore to China to reduce costs. Today, between tennis ball tosses, the talk is about companies diversifying their supply chains out of China. The new term is a China Plus One strategy for markets in Latin America, Southeast Asia, and India to benefit from being our new trade partners. Some multinational companies are building factories in these areas to cash in on lower costs. Industrial sectors are poised to benefit from diversified supply chains. 

3. Agricultureis another sector undergoing transformation. Innovative solutions are evolving to increase efficiency using high-tech precision agriculture to grow crops more effectively. Precision agriculture is a new term describing the use of high-tech and artificial intelligence (AI) to grow crops more efficiently. Geolocation sensors help farmers with machine learning techniques increasing productivity, requiring fewer passes on fields for fertilizing, planting, and harvesting. Patience is required in the agricultural industry with exciting developments on the horizon from manufacturers, AI, fertilizer companies and waste management. 

4. Speaking of tech and AI, our imagination is the limit when discussing how far its impact will be for implementation and applications in homes, factories, fields, and hospitals. Collaborative robots work with humans in a shared workspace. Traditional robots perform specific tasks, working independently and staying in one place. For instance, an unnamed online mega-retailer uses traditional warehouse robots to collaborate with AI powered robots. Performance improves over time with high initial failure rates. The robot picker/packer is designed to handle two-thirds of the one hundred million products in a typical warehouse taking just seconds for each task. Driverless taxis, drones, and remote surgical procedures are all innovations reshaping many industries with this AI revolution. 

Because it’s a hot topic, let’s talk a bit about AI and ChatGPT. Open AI’s ChatGPT is powered by generative artificial intelligence. Earlier this year, it demolished prior records and became the fastest consumer application in history. ChatGPT generative AI uses large language models or LLM to provide human-like responses to questions. Chat capability uses intents to predict what you’re trying to ask and then match an answer. GPT stands for generative pretrained transformer. A few fun facts are that ChatGPT is not Alexa or Siri; it runs off data from 2021 so if something happened post 2021, you probably won’t get an up-to-date or correct answer. AI technology will improve over time, is here to stay and there will likely be trust issues as technology evolves. As with the Agricultural and Industrial Revolution, there will be disruptions and opportunities with greater automation in AI. Questions arise over job loss, while the advancement provides opportunities for upskilling, another new term describing the shift for workers to acquire new skills and creative capabilities. Staying current with education and knowledge is powerful. The future is now, and it will be imperative to use our powers for good not evil. Stay focused and plan accordingly.