Digitalization
Digitalization is definitely the biggest discovery of past ten years, as it transformed industries and changed the way we live and work. This change has been ongoing for years, but the pandemic accelerated the process of digital platforms adoption and remote work at an unprecedented rate. Consequently, we have seen a major change in the way services are delivered, business continues, and people connect with each other.
The time has gone when you could go to the same office from 9 to 5 every day for your job. The pandemic has proven that remote work is not just possible, but in many cases, it is better. Thanks to digital tools and cloud technologies employees can work anywhere, and in this way, this flexibility is not simply a short term adjustment or fix.
Companies have come to the understanding that the employee’s location is not as important as the tools and resources to help them do the job well. The digital infrastructure from video conferencing platforms to digital project management tools is continuously changing, thus, it is strengthening collaboration. The development of technology facilitates the work process that, in turn, will lead to a more decentralized and borderless environment for business.
Digitalization in Marketing Research
As a person who works in the area of marketing research, I have observed how digitalization has been the main player in the industry. The more traditional method of the research that is conducted was depending on in person focus groups, product testing sessions, and telephone surveys. Throughout the years, these methods have been supplemented or replaced by digital solutions increasingly.
Thanks to online survey platforms and social media listening tools that now data collection has become quicker, more efficient and more diverse. It is possible to get your hands on the thoughts of multiple communities and make the most of the information in real time. Additionally, a large number of datasets are nowadays more easily processed by technology than they were some years ago. Even product testing that used to require physical presence has now become a part of the digital era. Consumers now are testing these products remotely. It is done by sending the requested products and gathering the feedback instead of bringing consumers to test them in environmental surroundings. Although the digital-obtained type is expanding the views and increasing efficiency, technological advancement brings us new possibilities and tools for more effective work.
The Future of Digitalization
In the future, my view of the digitalization process is that it will precisely and distinctly redefine both work and daily life. As far as for example, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and automation are concerned, being gradually advanced leads to automation of more trivial tasks. This move allows the utilization of human manpower for more strategic, creative, and analytical tasks.
The impact of AI-driven analytics in marketing research is immense. The AI-powered analytics tools have been a great help in the way we process and interpret data for the time being. As technology got more and more common consumers have started to require things like the prediction of the consumer behavior, the analysis of trends and the personalization of customer experiences to be more precise and more efficient. Actually, I wouldn’t be astonished if, in the future, conducting tests via immersive AI simulations will be the first preference of the consumers.
At the same time, VR and AR could revolutionize the remote collaboration space. The concept of virtual meeting rooms which mimic the regular office environment taking the place of video calls is not far from us. So, it is expected that with this technology remote work can be even more interactive, which will in turn reduce the demand for traditional office spaces.
The risk of open digital society
The digitization of nearly everything may have numerous advantages, but nevertheless comes with some risks, most notably about data security. The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) was put in place in 2018 and since then it has had a very important impact in defining the way businesses acquire, manage, and use personal data.
I will never forget the time when my job at the office got more interesting due to GDPR’s introduction. It made us define guidelines which would lead to the possibility of making data unrecognizable on request as well as setting strict time limits for the retention period and in case of non compliance make us be transparent about the data we hold. One of the most influential things was the right to be forgotten, which makes it possible for people to require the deletion of their accounts. In my personal opinion, I was very much empowered, as this rule gave me more power over companies that keep my personal information.
Professionally speaking, GDPR brought a great deal of clarity into the ever vague area of data management thus became the stepping stone for complying with this regulation. Despite bringing benefits for data protection, GDPR’s impact is also noticeable due to the scarcity of market research. We had to apply newly acquired knowledge to data collection, and conflicts with clients resulting from their differing understanding of the regulations sometimes served as stumbling blocks. While these problems have mostly eased off the report, they indicate the continuous necessity of finding the tradeoff between personal privacy concerns and creative digital innovations.
Moving to regulatory change, the new measures have been put in place to control as well as set an accountability culture which resulted in creating a much chosen digital world with the need of an open approach to access this living space. The digital world is not the same as the paper based one because it is a global thing and each device interacts with many others. This is also true with GDPR. It has been effective enough to accomplish transparency and accountability in the digital world. However, companies, especially smaller sized ones, have been stuck with harder administrative obligations. Therefore, as digital privacy and technology advance, privacy laws will have to follow the new world order in the digital domain.
Chat GTP
I decided to test ChatGPT by asking questions related to marketing research. The responses were generally accurate and fact based, but they lacked a bit depth and practical insights that a human expert could provide.
Personally, I believe artificial intelligence will performance a very different role in our lives than it usually does, the life where it still remains in an early stage of development. Lack of clear cut indicators where any AI system gets its data, from credible university libraries, blogs, to minor parts of the entire Internet, is an issue of AI-generated information. Luckily, a huge number of AI systems have begun to be more clear about the data sources used, and thus, determining the correctness has become simple.
Presently, the AI algorithms aspire to become friends with my mind so I use them mainly for the organizing purpose. For instance, I send my notes to the AI and tell it to summarize or explain me the points that are unclear, and it helps me to improve my thoughts. This can be my assistant at work, where AI will be useful in shortening the main message or using it for clearer communication with the clients. So far, I have seen it as an invaluable aid, yet I believe it cannot fully replace human expertise, at least not yet. It won’t be long until that happens though.
Self evaluation
Based on my experience and this study module, I can admit digitalization has been quite a transformational process for my industry, as it has also been a constant development process that will continue. It has forced me that I should contemplate not only the upsides of going digital but also the problems that come with it, particularly with time concerning data security.
When I talk about a prospective future, I am so optimistic that the world will witness an increase in equality and a decline in bureaucracy, which will be achieved by means of digitalization. At the same time, the innovation/keeping up with the newest technologies and the security issue beware will be dominant. This module has been an interesting way to reconsider the role of digitalization technologies in my work and private life thus, it has prepared me better for a deeper exploration of the subjects in the future.
I commented on these bloggs:
https://sadni.website/?page_id=22&unapproved=15&moderation-hash=7a08c2686057b4e576cd0f74bcd8bd56#comment-15
https://blogi.savonia.fi/vaisanensanna/digi-society/