The Conversation

THE PACE OF TECHNOLOGICAL REVOLUTION IS NOW EXPONENTIAL INSTEAD OF LINEAR, NIGEL VAZ, CEO OF U.S.-BASED DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION COMPANY PUBLICIS SAPIENT, PART OF THE 14.1 BILLION PUBLICIS GROUPE, TELLS FORTUNE INDIA. VAZ, HELMING THE COMPANY SINCE 2019, SAYS ORGANISATIONS AND INDIVIDUALS NEED TO UNDERSTAND THAT THEIR ABILITY TO MANAGE CHANGE WILL DETERMINE IF THEY ARE SUCCESSFUL OR NOT

- URVASHI MISHRA

What are the opportunities and challenges presented by the ongoing tech revolution?

We’re about to enter a period where change to humanity is not as great as perhaps when the internet arrived or the world was electrified. But it’s a significant change because we’re moving towards an ability to harness collective wisdom, power, listening ability and skill of the entire world and putting it at the fingertips of every individual. What’s unique is that people are seeing themselves transformed on an individual basis.

Are you seeing this at organisational level, too?

Both pace and scale of change are increasing in organisations. The pace is now exponential. Organisations and people need to recognise that change is the only constant in this new world and how you embrace it to transform yourself will decide whether you’re successful or not.

For example, we’re working with hospitals where a nurse in an ICU, who earlier cared for three-four patients and followed five-six bits of data, has access to predictive models that read current statistics of patients and tell her she may need to call a doctor in, say, half an hour. Radiologists are being aided and in some cases superseded by AI(1) that can look at scans and predict the likelihood of malignant tumours.

Which are the sectors where conversation on technology is far ahead and which are the sectors that have a lot of catching up to do?