Published on the 25/01/2016 | Written by Beverley Head
Deloitte has released its technology predictions for 2016 – and perhaps most startling is the way that smartphones are being used, but women aren’t…
According to the recently released Deloitte Technology, Media and Telecommunications Predictions, in most developed nations more than a quarter (26 per cent) of smartphone users will not use the device to make a telephone call in a given week. Instead they will text, social media, or use over the top internet services such as Whatsapp to communicate.
Deloitte questions whether this trend is a way to economise, with many phone plans offering much cheaper text than voice messages. It may of course instead represent a shift in social norms; already there is a certain degree of surprise that follows any attempt to respond to an email or text message with an actual phone call, even though it can often be far more efficient and effective.
That’s not to say we are going to lose the use of our voices; just maybe not to speak to another human as often.
One of Deloitte’s other predictions is about the rapid increase in deployment of cognitive technologies such as speech recognition, machine learning and natural language processing. The organisation says that while about 25 of the world’s largest enterprise software companies have deployed such technologies to date, that will soar to 80 percent in 2016.
A much slower trajectory is anticipated for the participation of women in ICT. Internationally, about 25 percent of all ICT roles are held by women. While it’s a slightly higher 28 percent in Australia, the Deloitte report notes the pay gap that exists locally with women being paid less than their male peers for performing similar work (though it notes the imbalance is a function of many factors including fewer women than men graduating with IT qualifications, a likely bias in recruitment advertising, an unconscious gender bias in hiring and promotions and difficulties with retaining women in IT jobs; the company also referred to what it described as a “hostile” culture that existed for women in the field.)
Encouraging more Australians generally and girls in particular to consider a STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) career was one of the focus points of last year’s $1.1 billion innovation agenda released by the Federal Government. In December the Government ran its Curious Minds initiative that took 54 school girls to Canberra in a bid to inspire them to follow STEM opportunities, and it has committed to invest $13 million in all to encourage more girls into the fields.
