Q&A: Critical technological innovations and emerging trends

We recently interviewed Rita Arrigo, Deputy Director CIAIRI, RMIT University, Digital Innovation Lead, Frazer-Nash Consultancy and former Digital Strategist, Microsoft, to get her insights on some of the critical technological innovations and emerging trends that will set up the way Australians do business over the next decade.

Read on to discover Rita’s views on:

  • Critical technology innovations which will shape the way Australians do business over the next ten years
  • Web3 and the Metaverse
  • The most important technical challenges facing mixed reality
  • The future of quantum computing change

What do you think are the critical technology innovations which will shape the way Australians do business over the next ten years?

Critical innovation will include technologies such as Machine Learning – used to predict and get personalisation right. Computer vision for safety, health, traffic etc. Augmented Reality and Mixed Reality will play a bigger role as we move from the screen to holograms.  Robot Expansion, to help us in the home, office, factory, and warehouse, and blockchain will continue to create new levels of confidential computing.

There’s a lot of talk recently about Web3 and the Metaverse. How do you see those advances changing the way Australian businesses operate?

As Australians, we have embraced many types of metaverses in the past, like gaming and Second Life. The new Metaverse, when combined with Spatial Computing, which will allow us to teleport into spaces either as avatars or volumetric captured humans. We will have a spatial sense of where we are entering and be able to share and see a 3D object that we can model, monitor, and synchronise with the physical world.

It’s obvious that new and emerging technologies will change the Australian employment landscape. What are some of the best ways current leaders can futureproof their organisations to make the most of the changes while doing right by their staff?

Focus on becoming a tech and data business. The most successful leaders prioritise tech and data by ensuring they know how to apply them both to solving challenges and discovering new opportunities. Insisting on business as usual will be a crucial mistake. The other thing to embrace is a collaborative approach to technology and business embracing emerging technology with empathy. Gone are the days of documenting business requirements to IT and waiting for them to deliver. The results will be in partnering and building empathy to embrace the change.

What are the most important technical challenges facing mixed reality technology, and what will be needed to address them to ensure business confidence grows efficiency, productivity, and digital security?

Mixed Reality is currently hampered by the AI and Data infrastructure needed to support it. For example, to monitor and synchronise the world in 3D, you will have to spatial-enable assets and make them available via a high-speed data transfer, secured cloud/edge computing with 5G integration. This will be far beyond the infrastructure we currently support. The business case will be sound as productivity and innovation happen on this fertile platform.

How will quantum computing change the way we do business?

A way to relate to quantum is that we are currently using computers that are like cars. When quantum arrives, it will be like planes. Many things we wanted to do will become possible. With the dramatic shift in computing, power quantum will deliver the ability to simulate with vast amounts of data, removing the need for human and animal testing, new levels of complex problem solving that was not possible before.


Join us at Women in Tech. Fest 2022 to hear from Rita Arrigo and a host of other tech leaders on 10-12 May 2022. Learn more.