Vibrant, urban environments depend on collaboration with citizens, businesses, and universities.
In 2017, Boston was at a crossroads in its approach to smart-city planning and development. In preceding years, it had implemented a number of initiatives to streamline its operations with data and analytics, which had delivered significant value. Now officials were seeing the possibilities for technology to create new and improved services for its residents.
Since the 1800s, we have experienced three industrial revolutions. Each was powered by a disruptive new technology: the mechanics of the steam engine, the innovation of the assembly line, and the speed of the computer. The reason they were called industrial “revolutions” was because the innovation that drove them didn’t just improve productivity and efficiency a little bit – it completely revolutionized how goods were produced and how work was done.
The future of work is defined by two major trends that are changing workplaces, workforces, and the nature of work in the 2020s. The first trend is the growing adoption of technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, and robotics in the workplace. And the second is the changing physical distribution of the workforce and the rise in remote employees and gig workers.
