Managing Technology for the Post-Digital Era

An emerging technology stack made up of distributed ledgers, artificial intelligence, extended reality, and quantum computing will drive business growth and innovation. This article is part of an MIT SMR initiative exploring how technology is reshaping the practice of management. Businesses are adopting digital technologies at an unprecedented pace, with spending on digital transformation expected to reach a staggering $1.25 trillion in 2019. As a result of these efforts, digital technologies are increasingly powering core business operations. In fact, 79% of the more than 6,600 business and IT executives worldwide that Accenture surveyed for its 2019 report, "The Post-Digital Era Is Upon Us," say that digital technologies -- specifically social, mobile, analytics, and cloud, which we refer to as SMAC -- have now moved beyond adoption silos to become part of the technology foundation for their organizations.