DIGITAL MARKETING: Keeping pace with technological development

In an imperfect world, regulations are always lagging behind the speed of innovation. In a perfect digital world, regulators must not only be on top of cybersecurity but also beyond the tech-enabled disruption while innovators are revolutionising industries forward.

However, there are plenty of enthusiast-experts who are immersed in the elegant ecosystem presiding over emerging internet-technologies.

Thus why in the digital economy, despite the lack of proper guidance, tech companies are taking Artificial intelligence (AI) to the next level hence making digital transformation an attainable and sustainable goal. Today, most tech companies are looking at digitisation holistically by applying digital thinking across all the digital platforms.

The revolution is happening at the blink of an eye, and it’s not initiated by regulators. As you know, digital brands are using big data to improve consumers’ engagement. As customer behaviour keeps evolving; even their preferences are changing due making of happenstance in scalable better digital branding choices. The number-one catalyst driving everything is innovation.

When Google was founded in the late 1998, it was serving ten thousand searches per day. By the end of 2006 that same amount was served in a second. As of now, there are over 3.5 billion searches per day worldwide. This implies the digital revolution has levelled the playing field. It took about 75 years for the telephone to have an audience of 50 million people. The same record was attained in 38, 35 and 3.5 years by Radio, Television and iPhone respectively. Moreover, Facebook and an App known as the “Pokémon Go” reached such a record respectively in 2 years and 19 days. On the contrary, the real revolution has achieved remarkable success with big data rather than internet search or media.

Today, we’re manipulating data and digitizing more of typical human experiences than ever thought possible in new dimensions. There are five known tech trends causing the most disruption in the digital economy. First, the human capital trend as consumers are neither after financial performance nor quality product(s). But rather are interested with positive maximum impact in the society. Hence, automatic transformation from business enterprise(s) into social enterprise(s).

Secondly, AI which tallies with machine learning has yet to master the art of dealing with ambivalence. With big data context is still an issue hence avoidance to incur extra costs in human capital in preparing data to be fed in the AI algorithms. Still a long way to go before automation and radical efficiency can become a reality. On the contrary, AI must provide a means to harvest knowledge from the big data era. Unfortunately, consumers are being addicted differently via manipulative schemes, hence a new world of darkness and craziness. Facebook’s old mantra used to be “move fast and break things.” Thirdly, the Internet of Things (IoT) is about technological revolution which invading everything with new capabilities from home appliances to traffic lights to security cameras to anything.

Fourth, digital transformation is often activated by serendipity from unlikely places, revolutionizing entire industries like online payments and transportation, to name a few.

Lastly, it’s cybersecurity, as AI and machine learning gathers pace. AI is advancing rapidly and it’s role will increase exponentially hence impacting IoT and all other industries. The fight for cyber criminals must be in offensive mode. Innovation and cybersecurity are two sides of the same coin.

Mr Swai is the content director for MobiAd Africa Tanzania Ltd