Digitization was already there. Social media, tools for video conferencing, sales platforms online and courier services were already there, just a click away from all of us. So why should we talk about a new digitization? Digitization was a world inhabited by a few, mainly within the professional or technological sphere, while the new digitization has been adopted by the whole of society as a whole, changing its habits and the way it interacts. This is quite a revolution. Revolutions are always preceded by chaos, but after the initial madness, they give way to progress.
Any avant-garde arouses fear, suspicion and even a certain conspiracy state. Without this vanguard, however, man would not have evolved, and no doubt his way of life would be infinitely worse. We always say the past was better, but this is absolutely uncertain: we have never enjoyed a life expectancy like the present and the ability to access our dreams that are so real. That is why we must be extremely optimistic about this new reality that is emerging from the new digitization and that is only going to bring extraordinary things to our personal and professional well-being.
Advances in artificial intelligence, robotics and digitization will allow people to spend more time in life and focus on the truly inherent professional tasks that come from creativity, love and the added value of mechanical processes. Technology will undoubtedly take over all functional stages of our business, but who cares? Personally, I would love to have a robot that works for me 24 hours a day, while dedicating myself to the most poetic part of my profession. The soul of a company will never be in the hands of an algorithm. This is where we should focus all our efforts from now on. To think that technology is the enemy and will eventually replace humans is unreal. On the other hand, it will enable us to be more competent and free us from the space / time slavery that makes us so sick and exhausts us. Not seeing it like that, and assuming it, is like working through the field with a hoe, because tractors look like hellish machines.
Digitization has made us ubiquitous and multi-channel. Our presence has been multiplied exponentially through the myriad channels at our disposal. Today we can meet our team at Zoom almost in the morning, present a product live on Instagram to our followers mid-morning, participate in a webinar taught from another continent in the afternoon and dinner with our family without leaving home. All this thanks to teleworking. The impact of our presence is immensely higher today and the costs are minimal when we take into account the savings in resources, travel and time that digital presence entails. We may think that replacing our physical presence with the virtual one makes us less close and effective, but it is not: one does not take away the other, it is a matter of weighing our physical presence and being present when it really is requires. Stop being ahead of it, that’s what we basically did before, reduce productivity in our lives, spend them in airports, meetings and waiting rooms that turned out to be ineffective in most cases.
Let’s face it: technology has put people first. If we do, it will all make sense. The new digitization is simply a matter of love for ourselves and the society we form. It’s about ceasing to be machines to finally be humans and all that Common love that should guide our existence.
Ecequiel Barricart is the author of Being digital, published by Eunate Editions.