This archive report was first published on 4 December 2019.
December 4, 2019, marked a significant milestone in the journey of innovation, as the world witnessed the emergence of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, commonly referred to as Industry 4.0 or 4 IR in technology circles.
According to Roseline Wanjiru, an economist and chief marketing officer at Kesholab's Blockchain Centre, the Fourth Industrial Revolution is characterized by the integration of technology into daily life, with cyber-physical systems playing a crucial role.
"We are not just seeing apps that measure our steps and get us talking in real-time at virtually no cost, we are also seeing others that make it possible to do so much in such short time that we need to be conscious of our relationship with the future," Wanjiru said.
The journey to the Fourth Industrial Revolution began with the First Industrial Revolution, which was defined by coal, water, and steam, birthing the steam engine and innovations that powered mass production of goods and saw the revolution of the transport sector between 1765 and 1868.
Industry 2.0, which occurred between 1869 and the 1960s, was marked by the invention of electricity, the telegraph, and the telephone, which substantially changed the face of communication.
The Third Industrial Revolution began with the emergence of nuclear energy and the rise of electronics, which saw the invention of the transistor and microprocessor, anchoring the development of telecommunications and the first computer.
Today, we are experiencing an exciting and disruptive phase of the innovation journey, thanks to automation and the internet, which are driving massive changes in every sector of the economy.
"Industry 4.0 is right here disrupting every sector. It propels business growth through emerging technologies, while its quest for interconnectivity is changing the future of work, property ownership, transport, communication, banking, insurance, sports, government, and logistics," said M Timothy Oriedo, founder of Predictive Analytics, a data science acceleration firm.
The current revolution utilizes emerging technologies such as Blockchain, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Data Science, and Machine Learning (ML), and Internet of Things, and is now moving to the fastest ever network - 5G - which seeks to eventually connect zillions of devices worldwide and boost the creation of smart cities, villages, homes, and living parks.
Experts say that Blockchain technology promises to wipe out corruption, financial mismanagement, fraud, and the distribution of counterfeit goods, while AI enables the growth of business, especially e-commerce, where applications like visual search, chatbots, and automated product tagging are used to increase search discoverability of goods and services.
"Blockchain and AI have emerged as technologies that offer actual means to fight corruption and ensure that citizens' interests are protected, given that they offer transparency and immutability," said the Distributed Ledgers Technology (DTL) and AI Taskforce report, citing Spain, Ghana, Georgia, and Ukraine as countries that have gained tremendous success in using the technologies to fight graft.
As the world witnesses seismic changes courtesy of technological disruptions, it is becoming increasingly inevitable for any country to be left out of the 4 IR wave. Doing so will be more catastrophic than during Industry 3.0 when most developing nations chose to be weighed down by their economic problems and remained in the wait-and-see cocoon as other nations took advantage of the rapid changes.
