Human augmentation next on the CIO's to-do list

Human augmentation may seem to some like science fiction, but it’s coming to the enterprise, and you need to start preparing for its eventual arrival.

Human augmentation - which analyst firm Gartner says ranges from existing wearable technologies to emerging brain-interface and implanted technologies - is one of a class of techs that Gartner calls ‘digital business technologies’.

In a new report called ‘How CIOs need to think about digital business technologies’, Gartner analysts Hung LeHong, Stephen Prentice, Kristian Steenstrup, Tomas Nielsen and Earl Perkins argue that CIOs should start thinking about these technologies.

Some CIOs are reluctant to bring digital business technologies into the IT fold, for a couple of reasons, Gartner says. For one, these technologies are operational in nature.

“The IT organisation is used to owning and supporting ‘back office’ and infrastructure technologies,” the analysts write. Digital business technologies, on the other hand, are aimed at supporting front office and operations.

Secondly, these digital business techs are emerging technologies. “Drones, the IoT and cognitive systems are not commonly part of the IT agenda.”

But the analysts suggest that CIOs must understand how relevant these techs may be to their industries, and to “give them a fair assessment”.

“There is much at stake - in both business value and technology investment,” they say.

The internet of things (IoT) - the connection of non-computer ‘things’ like toasters, toys and thermostats to the internet - provides an example.

“From a business value perspective, the IoT is poised to deliver major productivity improvements and new revenue streams (combined, Gartner forecasts [US]$9 trillion by 2020),” the analysts say.

“From a technology investment perspective, consider that, for many enterprises, most endpoints on a corporate network will be things (for example, machines and building sensors), and not PCs or mobile devices. The IoT could easily dominate the technology landscape of an enterprise.”

Over time, different CIOs will adopt different postures towards these digital business technologies, with some taking more of a ‘leadership’ role and others a more ‘supportive’ role.

The analysts say that regardless of which camp a CIO falls into, “CIOs should have an opinion, and should participate in innovating and in testing the business cases in the early stages”.

CIOs should thus start forming their positions on these digital business technologies and prepare their IT departments with the right resources and skill sets.

Gartner says that human augmentation techs - like wearables, implants and brain interfaces - will be used to improve effectiveness of employees in many different ways.

The firm says that CIOs should first look at wearable tech, which it says “can improve employee effectiveness, safety and health”.

As for how to get the technology into the workplace, the analysts point out that a few years ago, it was common for senior execs to be given or to request tablets.

“It was a great way for CIOs to introduce senior leadership to technology. Similarly, wearables such as smartwatches and fitness/health monitors (for example, Fitbit) can be given by CIOs to senior executives to demonstrate the value of these technologies.”

But in order to fully implement human augmentation, CIOs will need to augment their IT department.

“As the solutions for human augmentation are based on very specialised technology that is currently not widely deployed, CIOs should not expect their current staff to possess the necessary insights, but should prepare their staff to acquire these skills as a part of the human augmentation efforts,” the analysts say.

CIOs will also need “digital anthropologists who can identify nth order impact”.

“As human augmentation often has nth order impact - for example, augmented reality (AR) in the form of Google Glass may require employees to have a certain visual acuity, or to be able to use contact lenses - CIOs should plan for staff with digital anthropologist skills for this broader analysis.”

The analysts also suggest: “Given that cultural acceptance of human augmentation may still be evolving, CIOs should plan for wider and more involved stakeholder management, involving HR and (if applicable) unions and other employee representatives throughout the process.”

Pictured: Gartner analyst Hung LeHong