Held annually in Las Vegas, the Client Electronics Present (CES) describes itself as “probably the most influential tech occasion on the planet.” With an estimated 100,000 attending final week’s occasion, it might be the most important, too.
Whereas tech manufacturers deal with the annual commerce present as a chance to indicate off their newest revolutionary devices and merchandise, this yr’s present additionally noticed an elevated concentrate on expertise that may form the way forward for work — and the way that expertise impacts workers.
Listed here are the bulletins that stood out.
New tech marketed to distant and hybrid employees
A few of the bulletins for brand spanking new PC peripherals straight seized on the distant and hybrid work development, emphasizing screens with greater resolutions for an optimum distant work surroundings and laptops marketed to freelancers. Amongst these merchandise, HP went additional by emphasizing the collaboration capabilities of its new HP Dragonfly G4, HP EliteBook 1040 G10, and HP Elite x360 1040 G10, which embody multi-camera assist so employees can concurrently present themselves alongside a show or whiteboard, paperwork and extra.
HP additionally launched the Poly Voyager Free 60 Collection line of wi-fi earbuds, which it claims was designed with hybrid employees in thoughts. Past adaptive noise canceling and background noise blocking, HP additionally says that the buds can pair with the Poly Lens cellular app to let IT managers remotely handle worker units.
After all, with every innovation in expertise comes a possible for the tech to be misused or abused, and these buds are not any exception. “Remotely managing units” historically refers to taking full management of the machine, nevertheless it’s unclear from HP’s preliminary launch if because of this the buds can enable IT to document what workers hear and say by their wi-fi earbuds, or take them over entirelly.
In an period the place worker surveillance is extra frequent than ever, it’s on communicators to contemplate the moral implications of this tech ought to your group contemplate adopting it. And in some cases, that may require asking extra questions of producers earlier than agreeing to make use of {hardware} at an enterprise degree.
These earbuds weren’t probably the most dystopian piece of workforce tech at CES, nevertheless. As a substitute, that superlative goes to Acer’s bike desk:
Acer says that the gadget, which makes use of kinetic power generated by pedaling to energy the person’s units, encourages a wholesome way of life whereas doubling a sustainable power resolution. The desk shifts right into a working mode and a sports activities mode relying on whether or not the person is understanding, whereas a companion app additionally tracks person information and progress.
Trying on the eKinekt bike desk, it’s onerous to not think about hundreds of those machines in a row in some nondescript, dimly lit manufacturing unit, illuminated solely by the glow of a laptop computer display screen and accompanied by the eerily synchronous sounds of fervent pedaling. In any case, the companies contemplate that contemplate shopping for these for sure employees will probably be making a daring assertion about their dedication to work tradition. Whereas selling well being and wellness is great, this tech walks a tremendous line by tethering biometrics to work productiveness and negating workers with disabilities.
Assembly, onboarding and coaching within the metaverse
When Fb rebranded as Meta and started to tease its forays into the metaverse, communicators questioned whether or not this new dimension for digital engagement would have enterprise-level functions past advertising and marketing. The potential for inside conferences within the metaverse appeared fuzzy at greatest tough to scale and nonetheless a methods off.
This yr, the imaginative and prescient of a collaborative workplace within the metaverse appears nearer to a actuality, with Dell edging ahead as a frontrunner in metaverse prototypes. At this yr’s present, Dell confirmed off Idea Nix, which inspired CNET reporter Dan Ackerman.
At a pre-CES preview, I used to be capable of take part in a pretend assembly by making a 3D avatar for others to see, and likewise by sitting in entrance of an autostereoscopic show (permitting you to see in 3D with out particular glasses) that gave me a 3D view of a mission. After that, I donned a VR headset to really feel like I (or my avatar) was truly in that shared house and writing on a whiteboard with my VR controller. And after that, I used to be ready to make use of a slate-style pill to work together with the real-world model of that very same whiteboard, however with out sporting a headset.
In the course of the present, Accenture additionally defined the way it used the metaverse to onboard 150,000 new group members just about throughout the pandemic. New hires got an XR headset and launched to the metaverse inside a digital “One Accenture Park.” Past there, they used the metaverse for group collaboration, conferences, city halls and extra. Accenture additionally elevated its studying and improvement alternatives, together with its dedication to accessibility, although this program.
At #ces2023, #Accenture‘s views on #Metaverse, together with how they purpose to make use of it for #coaching and #schooling, #accessibility, and the onboarding of 180k new #workers.#ces23 #ai #ar #vr #innovation #tech #technews #immersive #immersiveexperience #immersivetechnology pic.twitter.com/xmH2b9wCFn
— AkshayaNFT (@akshayaNFT) January 6, 2023
Digital fluency can enhance the worker expertise
New merchandise and software program apart, a number of CES panelists defined how the tech was only a means to an finish for serving to workers regain a while and high quality of life:
“The primary part was location independence, the subsequent frontier is time independence.” @darrenmurph @gitlab #futureofwork #allremote #CES2023
— Savvy at #CES2023 🇺🇦🏳️⚧️🏳️🌈 (@SavIsSavvy) January 5, 2023
Christie Smith, expertise & group/ human potential lead at Accenture, and Meta Director of Way forward for Work Dr. Kelly Monahan, went additional, explaining how digital fluency can shut the hole between what employees count on from a job and what employers are providing:
CES 2023 went past merchandise to show how the way forward for work is not going to be formed by expertise alone, but additionally how that expertise is carried out as a part of the worker expertise. To that finish, staying curious, as early adopters of latest and rising tech whereas remaining skeptical round any potential for abuse or misuse will be sure that your judgment as a communicator stays important to your IT, HR advertising and marketing departments and extra.
Justin Joffe is the editor-in-chief of Ragan Communications. Exterior of Ragan he’s additionally a media and tradition author, an avid music nerd, cinephile, and musician whose recorded output ranges from ambient and experimental to folks and rock’n’roll. Comply with him on Twitter and LinkedIn.
