Fourth Industrial Revolution: Key Features, Components, Trends, and Challenges

The Fourth Industrial Revolution's goal was automation and data exchange in manufacturing technologies. Cyber-physical systems (CPS), the Internet of things, industrial IoT, and artificial intelligence are all part of it. Cloud computing, and cognitive computing, are other parts of this. The Imagination Age begins with the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

The fourth industrial revolution is progressing at an exponential rather than linear rate. Furthermore, it affects almost every industry in every country. And the scope of these changes means that whole production and government systems will have to change.

Opportunities of The Fourth Industrial Revolution

The Fourth Industrial Revolution has the potential to increase global income levels. It improves people's quality of life all over the world. Consumers who can afford and access the digital world have benefited the most.

Technology has enabled new products and services that improve efficiency. It enhances the pleasure of our personal lives. Purchasing a product, making a payment, or playing a game is all now possible via remote control.

In the future, technological advancements will result in a supply-side miracle. It has long-term gains in efficiency and productivity. Transportation and communication costs will fall. Logistics and global supply chains will become more efficient. Trade costs will decrease, opening up new markets and driving economic growth.

Challenges of the Fourth Industrial Revolution

The revolution can potentially increase inequality, particularly by disrupting labor markets. The net displacement of workers by machines may exacerbate the gap between capital and labor returns. Workers may lose their jobs because of technology. But this will lead to a net increase in safe, rewarding careers.

We cannot predict which scenario will emerge now. But history suggests that it will be a combination of the two. Talent, rather than capital, will be the critical factor in production in the future.

This scenario will divide the job market into "low-skill/low-pay" and "high-skill/high-pay" groups and make social tensions worse.

Inequality is the most severe societal concern associated with the Fourth Industrial Revolution. It is also a significant economic concern.

Innovators, shareholders, and investors are the primary beneficiaries of innovation. It explains the growing wealth disparity between those who rely on capital and those dependent on labor.

One of the main reasons why incomes in high-income countries have stagnated or even decreased for most of the population is that the demand for skilled workers has increased. In contrast, the need for workers with less education and lower skills has decreased.

As a result, there is substantial demand at the high and low ends of the job market but a hollowing out of the middle.

This issue helps to explain why so many workers are disillusioned and fearful that their own and their children's real incomes will continue to stagnate. It also helps to explain why middle-class people worldwide are dissatisfied and unfairly treated. A "winner-take-all" economy that makes it hard for middle-class people to get ahead is bad for democracy.

The pervasiveness of digital technologies and the dynamics of information sharing typified by social media can also fuel discontent. More than 30% of the global population now connects, learns, and shares information through social media platforms.

In an ideal world, these interactions would foster cross-cultural understanding and cohesion. They can create unrealistic ideas about what success means for an individual or a group. They can also make it easier for revolutionary ideas and ideologies to spread.

The Fourth Industrial Revolution's Impact on Business

The Fourth Industrial Revolution has four significant effects on business. Customer expectations, product improvement, collaborative innovation, and organizational forms.

Customer

Customers are at the center of the economy, whether consumers or businesses. It is all about improving the quality of the service to customers.

Product

Digital capabilities can enhance the physical products and services that increase their value. New technologies improve asset durability and resilience. At the same time, data and analytics transform asset maintenance.

A world of customer experiences, data-driven services, and asset performance through analytics cause new forms of collaboration.

The rise of global platforms means that talent, culture, and organizational structures must be rethought.

Innovation

The inevitable shift from simple digitization to innovation is based on combining technologies. It is forcing businesses to rethink their business models.

Organizational Structures

Business leaders and senior executives must understand how their environment is changing. They should question the assumptions of their operational teams and come up with new ideas repeatedly.

The Impact on Government

New technologies and platforms will make it easier for citizens to interact with governments. It helps to voice their opinions, coordinate their efforts, and even avoid government oversight.

The Fourth Industrial Revolution will allow citizens to interact with their governments in new ways. New technologies enable power decentralization and redistribution. Because of this, governments must now change how they make policies and work with the public.

Technologies provide citizens with new tools to improve government accountability and reduce corruption. These technologies are digital analytics, the Internet of Things, and blockchain.

These technologies give governments new powers to exert control over populations. It also controls digital infrastructure. It will challenge governments to find ways to regulate emerging technology companies.

The Impact On People

The Fourth Industrial Revolution, finally, will change not only what we do but also who we are. It will affect our identity and all the issues associated with it. It will affect our sense of privacy, notions of ownership, and consumption patterns.

It will affect the time we devote to work and leisure and how we develop our careers, cultivate our skills, meet people, and nurture relationships. It is already changing our health and leading to a "quantified" self. And may lead to human augmentation soon. The list is endless because it is bound only by our imagination.

Our relationship with our smartphones is a case in point. The constant connection could take away one of the essential things in life. The chances to stop, think and have meaningful conversations.

Lack of Privacy is one of the most significant individual challenges posed by new information technologies. We instinctively understand why it is so essential.

Yet, tracking and sharing information about us is a crucial part of the new connectivity. Debates about fundamental issues such as the impact on our inner lives of the loss of control over our data will only intensify in the years ahead.

The revolutions in biotechnology and AI will force us to change our moral and ethical boundaries. They are changing what it means to be human by pushing back the current limits of life span, health, cognition, and abilities.

Shaping The Future

Neither technology nor the disruption that comes with it is an exogenous force over which humans have no control. We guide its evolution through our decisions as citizens, consumers, and investors. We should take advantage of the Fourth Industrial Revolution and its power to shape it. We should move toward a future reflecting our shared goals and values.

We must develop a comprehensive shared view of how technology affects our lives. And also how it is reshaping our economic, social, cultural, and human environments. There has never been a time of more incredible promise or one of greater potential peril.

Today's decision-makers are too often trapped in traditional, linear thinking. Or they are too absorbed by the many crises demanding their attention. They can't think about the forces of disruption and innovation shaping our future.

In the end, it all comes down to people and values. We need to shape a future that works for us by putting people first and empowering them. The Fourth Industrial Revolution may indeed have the potential to "robotize" humanity.

And thus, deprive us of our heart and soul. It can also lift society into a new collective and moral consciousness based on a shared sense of destiny. It is incumbent on us all to make sure the latter prevails.

The Advantages of the 4th Industrial Revolution

The 4th revolution brought with it a multitude of advantages and disadvantages. Whether robotics, IoT, AR/VR, or AI/ML, the foundation of change presents us with many questions. Some pros of the 4th industrial revolution are:

Higher Productivity

This situation happens with each industrial revolution, and the productivity of each industrial era goes up 50 times over the preceding age. It's estimated that productivity will increase by 8–10 percent in the next 5–10 years. This issue is because of increased automation.

Improved Quality of Life

Technology has made possible new products that increase the efficiency and pleasure of our personal lives. Experts exemplify this by mentioning "ordering a cab, booking a flight, buying a product remotely.

and also making a payment, listening to music, watching a film, playing a game" and even controlling the lights and temperature in our homes. Soon we'll have autonomous cars, or we already do – depending on when you're reading this and who knows what else.

New Markets

A fusion of technologies blurring the lines between physical, digital, and biological spheres will create new markets. It will also create growth opportunities. It will blend improvements from several fields that were often separated to create a new product or a new service. Not only will there be more knowledge workers, but also knowledge workers in new fields.

Lower Barriers To Entrepreneurship

We can already see that the barriers between inventors and markets reduces with new technologies like 3D printing for prototyping.

Entrepreneurs can now establish their companies and test various products with lower start-up costs without the traditional time, and cost constraints often encountered with conventional prototyping methods. They removed the typical barriers to entry from the entrepreneurial equation.

disadvantages of the 4th industrial revolution

Inequality

It is all about who gets these technologies' benefits and the results they help produce. The most significant beneficiaries tend to be intellectual and physical capital providers, such as shareholders, investors, and innovators. Technology is one of the main reasons why incomes have stagnated, or even decreased, for a majority of the population in high-income countries.

The demand for skilled workers has increased while the demand for workers with less education and lower skills has decreased, and the space between them will start to wear thin. So this could also lead to potential job losses. Technological, infrastructural and skill challenges are difficult to overcome for developing countries.

Cybersecurity Risk

When everything is connected, the risk of hacking data and tampering with it or using it for malicious intent is now more prevalent. It is not as contained as before. It's more and more frequent that we hear the dreaded news of a new data security breach so often that it does not shock us anymore. Not only that, but it challenges the idea of identity and privacy, mainly as data analytics and machine learning are increasingly used.

Core Industry Disruptions

We see this already which Taxis are competing against Uber and Lyft. Traditional television and cinema compete with Netflix and YouTube.

The hotel industry with AirBnB and any store is competing against Amazon. This type of new technolgoy has ramifications for the type of offered services, the model through which they are offered, and the jobs associated with them.

Ethical Issues

With improved AI, genetic engineering, and increased automation, there are new ethical concerns and questions of morality. These concerns already differ from individual to individual.

With access to more data about individuals or a group of individuals, the risk of using it for personal gain and manipulation is even greater. Cambridge Analytica harvested the personal data of millions of people's Facebook profiles without people's consent and used it for political advertising. This item is an example of one of those data misuses.

Inventions of the Fourth Industrial Revolution

The easiest way to understand the Fourth Industrial Revolution is to focus on the technologies driving it. These include the following:

Artificial Intelligence

AI describes computers that can "think" like humans. They can recognize complex patterns, process information, draw conclusions, and make recommendations.

The inventors used AI in many ways. They used it for everything, from spotting patterns in vast piles of unstructured data to powering the autocorrect on your phone.

Blockchain

Blockchain is a secure way of recording and sharing data without relying on third-party intermediaries. It is also a decentralized and transparent way. The digital currency Bitcoin is the best-known blockchain application.

Technicians can use the technology in other ways. To make supply chains easier to track, protect sensitive medical data without revealing who it belongs to, and stop voter fraud.

Faster Computer Processing

New computational technologies are making computers more intelligent. They enable computers to process vast amounts of data faster than ever before. At the same time, the advent of the cloud has allowed businesses to safely store and access their information from anywhere with internet access.

Quantum computing technologies now in development will make computers more powerful. These computers might be able to speed up AI, make data models that are very complicated in a matter of seconds, and find new materials faster.

"Virtual Reality" and "Augmented Reality"

What's the difference? VR offers immersive digital experiences (using a VR headset) that simulate the real world. At the same time, augmented reality (AR) merges the digital and physical worlds. Examples include L'Oréal's makeup app, which allows users to experiment with makeup products before buying them digitally. And the Google Translate phone app will enable users to scan and translate street signs, menus, and other text.

Biotechnology

Biotechnology harnesses cellular and biomolecular processes to develop new technologies and products for various uses, including new pharmaceuticals and materials, more efficient industrial manufacturing processes, and cleaner, more efficient energy sources. For example, scientists in Stockholm are making what is called the strongest biomaterial ever made.

Robotics

Robotics refers to the design, manufacture, and use of robots for personal and commercial use. While we're yet to see robot assistants in every home, technological advances have made robots sophisticated. They use robots in many fields, like manufacturing, health and safety, and helping people.

The Internet of Things

The IoT describes everyday items connected to the Internet and identifiable by other devices. Things like medical wearables that check users' physical condition to tracking devices inserted into parcels. A big plus for businesses is collecting customer data from constantly connected products. It allows them to better gauge how customers use products and tailor marketing campaigns accordingly. There are also many industrial uses, like when farmers put IoT sensors in their fields to keep an eye on the soil. It will help them make decisions like when to fertilize.

3D Printing

3D printing allows manufacturing businesses to print their parts. It will print with less tooling, at a lower cost, and faster than traditional processes. Plus, designs can be customized to ensure a perfect fit.

And More

Plastics, metal alloys, and biomaterials are some new materials that have the potential to change industries like manufacturing, renewable energy, construction, and healthcare.

Capturing, storing, and sending energy is a growing market. The cost of renewable energy technologies is decreasing, and battery storage capacity is improving.

Timeline Highlights

2010: Sensing drops in price. Smartphones and PCs are popular. The number of connected devices per person is more than 1 for the first time in history. Facebook reaches 400 million active users. Pinterest and Instagram have launched.

2011. Bring Your Device (BYOD) has become mainstream.
2013. Fifty-one percent of US adults report they bank online.
2016. Google Assistant greets the world, and chatbots join the Internet race. An IIoT vision emerges.
2018. Over 55 percent of the world's population uses the Internet.

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advantages and disadvantages of industrial revolution