In part one of Wellington’s Tech WELLcovered series, their technology team examine tech innovation through the lens of WELL — Work, Experience, Life stages and Legacy — offering investors a way to think differently about their tech exposure and position themselves to invest in the technology driving disruption.
Whatever your industry, the work of the past was error-prone, time-consuming and labour-intensive. Technology has helped solve these challenges and empowered unprecedented scale across all types of work. From cloud-based accounting software to factory automation, these innovations also enable you to focus on the things that matter most — for example, being more creative and generating value-added ideas.
Work today: scale and efficiency leap forward
Today, countless innovations make smarter, faster and more scalable work possible. The pandemic also accelerated the demand growth in applications for flexibility and connectivity.
Importantly, historical evidence suggests technology won’t put people out of work: increasing automation has led to new hiring even in labour-intensive industries such as steel, textiles or automotives, compared with when they were artisan industries. Wellington’s technology team thinks innovation simply eliminates mundane tasks and enhances human capabilities, driving higher-quality results and greater worker satisfaction.
Consider mortgage lenders: AI and machine learning are enabling automated lending decisions that previously required lengthy in-person meetings – this means more loans will be processed over time (and it should also lead to less discriminatory lending practices).
Take advances in online shopping as another example: how rare is it that you receive a package that wasn’t meant for you? Tools such as barcode cameras, machine-vision-enabled bin-picking and cloud-based inventory management systems make today’s unparalleled efficiency possible and enhance the customer experience. Moreover, the advent of 5G allows warehouse customers to manage logistics remotely through a digital interface with the help of AI.
Work tomorrow: next generation of “intelligence” sparking reimagination
Wellington’s research engagements with company management teams, suppliers and industry experts make them increasingly excited about workplace innovation. AI and machine intelligence continue to evolve from robots learning to sort and select items, to machine vision differentiating shapes and AI assisting human decision making with improved pattern recognition. For example, AI is already more diagnostically accurate than human doctors in some areas.
The robot showcased at the Tokyo Olympics that never missed a basketball shot gave us a glimpse of the countless possibilities that precise physical dexterity can bring, such as refined surgical applications. Wellington believes these advances will enable more creativity and improved outcomes at work and generate investable opportunities across industries, geographies and market caps.
“We are already seeing remarkable advances fuelled by machine intelligence around the world,” says Yash Patodia, global industry analyst at Wellington Management. “These range from a small-cap Japanese machine vision provider to a mid-cap Australian provider of cloud-based accounting software to a mega-cap American maker of robotic surgical equipment.”
Witnessed. Experienced. Reimagined.
Workplace innovation has already transformed our lives by enabling progress in scale, efficiency and flexibility. The team believes significant advances in new forms of intelligence will continue to reshape the future of work.
To take advantage of the reimagined future of work, investors have to identify the right trends and the right companies at the right time. Is your tech exposure ready to capture this potential?
To explore more about what it means to have tech WELLcovered, visit Wellington’s tech and innovation website.
1Source: TechCrunch, November 2020.
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