With so much ‘noise’ with the recent federal budget and the worries around the escalating cost of living it would be remiss if we did not reflect on the technology opportunities that business currently has.  We are, despite the recent news of the Telstra retrenchments and the growth of consultant work as cost-cutting advisors, living in a time of great change with arguably the greatest advancements in commerce since the advent of the printing press.

In the advertising and communications business, we have faced massive disruption and change in the last twenty years, but can anyone truly say that our industry is not better for the advancement and improvements we have seen in productivity.  From pdfs to seamless new technology platforms, we can now work faster and more efficiently from anywhere in the world.

Reading the newspapers we are faced with so many conflicting scenarios.  Whilst the government has lifted the caps on public service employment with head numbers expected to grow.  The reality is that productivity wise the opportunities presented by Ai and new technology will see us able to achieve huge improvements in the quality of our human capital and increased leisure time as we endeavour to balance work and life.  Governments need to look at the efficiency of the resources at their disposal and increasing staff numbers might look attractive, but what about reinventing and transforming the way you deliver your services.

History shows that technological advancement requires adjustment, but the quality of life and the standard of living of the general population improves, during periods of rapid transformation.  Right now, there seems to be a fixation on the skills shortage.  Improving practices and utilizing technology together with migrating the existing work force through the ’change’ will see a more adaptive, flexible workforce that will result in improved outcomes for the whole country.

My observation is that when times are good companies often do not look at the productivity they could achieve.  With size comes bureaucracy and there are many companies that in a marketing sense are not challenging the way they go to market and the resources they deploy.  I am an unashamed supporter of my industry as efficient wholesalers of creative services who can bring new thinking and efficiencies to a marketing and communications department.

One small example recently brought this home to me.  A client was looking to produce a series of training videos using a traditional approach to shooting and recording, as well as a presenter.  Our team was able to develop an Ai generated human avatar that fronted the video series and with the utilisation of other specialist software produce the video at a fraction of the anticipated budget.  New technology has many benefits and with the right attitude and people the results are overwhelmingly positive.