The first ever CBI/Accenture Tech Tracker shows where innovative businesses are planning to invest over the next five years. The CBI's Felicity Birch explains why all firms should take note.
As technology rapidly changes the way we live and work, the UK can’t afford to take its foot off the pedal. The upcoming general election is a golden chance to break the Brexit gridlock, so that business can focus on the technologies behind the greatest innovations of the decade. It’s fair to say political uncertainty has taken its toll on business investment in technology, but it’s not stopping firms looking to turn research into reality.
Take AI. A decade ago the technology was mainly on the silver screen. Now it’s everywhere we look. Experiences like online shopping have been transformed – from chatbots that provide customer service to algorithms that can search for the perfect product based on your preferences. It is fast becoming impossible to imagine a world without AI. So the question arises: what’s next?
New survey data – from the first ever CBI/Accenture Tech Tracker – reveals some surprising answers. Over the next five years, the top innovation that businesses surveyed will start investing in is distributed ledger technology (35%). And there is also set to be a quantum leap: nearly three times as many businesses plan to invest in quantum
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