Artificial intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things (IoT), robotics and technology strategies have become key to businesses seeking opportunities for growth and staying competitive in the digital era, say tech industry pundits.
They were speaking at a Forbes Thailand forum entitled "Thailand's mega trends", held at Centara Grand and Bangkok Convention Centre on Thursday.
TECH TRENDS
Abel Deng, chief executive of Huawei Technologies Thailand, said Thailand's digital economy is predicted to contribute to 30% of the country's GDP by 2030, up from 17% this year.
He said AI, 5G and the cloud are all the foundations for the digital economy.
Digital transformation is now fostering an intelligent world, he said. For example, as Huawei works with Siriraj Hospital to support AI tech for illness diagnosis, this helps shorten the process from 10 minutes to only 25 seconds, he said.
Mr Deng also highlighted 10 trends heading towards 2025.
The first concerns people's lives with robots, with the adoption rate of domestic robots projected to reach 14% by 2025.
Second, the percentage of companies using augmented reality and virtual reality could rise to 10%.
Third, the adoption rate of personal digital assistants would reach 90%.
Fourth, cellular vehicle to everything technology should be installed in 15% of the world's vehicles, he said.
Fifth, 103 industrial robots are expected to work with every 10,000 employees.
Sixth, 97% of large companies will be using AI in their services.
Seventh, enterprises are projected to be making efficient use of 86% of the data they produce and eighth, 85% of business applications will be cloud-based.
Mr Deng said the ninth trend involves 5G rollout, which is expected to cover 58% of the global population by 2025. And the final trend concerns the global data produced annually, which is projected to reach 180 zettabytes.
Mr Foo stresses investment in your employees.
DIGITAL STRATEGY
Chang Foo, chief operating officer of Tencent Thailand, a local unit of the international tech giant, stressed digital strategy and investment in people, processes and technology as the keys to success for businesses.
"Digital strategies are not a subset of corporate strategies anymore. They are one and will create a sustainable growth for your business," he said.
Apart from a technology focus, business operators should invest in people and processes to ensure success, said Mr Foo.
Tencent invested in Sanook.com, Thailand's leading online entertainment portal, in 2010. Since then the company has grown its product portfolio, including streaming music application Joox, PUBG mobile game, video-streaming platform WeTV as well as comic content platform WeComics.
Since the pandemic erupted, he said Tencent Thailand has received a number of business requests to work with Tencent Cloud in supporting and enabling their transformation to digital enterprises.
"We empower the digital economy with vertical solutions providing for different industries including the government sector, enterprise, finance, retail and internet," said Mr Foo.
ONLINE OPPORTUNITY
Sura Khanittaweekul, chief executive of IT retailer Com 7 Plc, said in the next 3-5 years businesses should look to apply new advanced technologies, such as AI, robotics and 5G-related products to boost new opportunities and stay competitive.
Mr Sura says companies should look to new technologies.
He said the pandemic has offered a huge lesson for businesses on how they should manage risk.
"During the lockdown, we saw a revenue loss of 90% as this amount usually comes from physical channels, with only 3% from online," said Mr Sura.
"In the past few months, 10% of our revenue has come from the online channel."
He said the company now set a goal to provide seamless online and offline shopping experience for customers.
