With 2024 here, organizations across sectors are scanning through trend reports. From technology trends to industry trends, these reports help set the right stage for the year(s) ahead. They also help organizations organize their thinking and validate the technology and business areas to focus on. One such much-anticipated report is Gartner’s “Top 10 Strategic Technology Trends for 2024”. This year, Gartner has put the concept of an augmented-connected workplace into the spotlight. So, what is the augmented-connected workplace? How should CIOs and other leaders view their role in enabling this key trend?

Read on for some answers.

Understanding the Concept of an Augmented-Connected Workplace

As technology disruptions and socioeconomic uncertainties continue to come about, embracing the latest trends can enable companies to strategically run their businesses while enhancing agility and resilience. Understanding them can empower IT leaders to lay down a robust roadmap and make technology investments that help drive success – amidst uncertainties and pressures.

In its latest strategic technology trend report, Gartner has listed the top 10 technology innovations organizations must keep an eye on in 2024. One of them is the augmented-connected workforce (ACWF).

With skilled workforce talent becoming increasingly difficult to source and scale, ACWF helps optimize the value derived from existing talent. Using intelligent applications and workforce analytics, it provides everyday context and guidance to support (and improve) the workforce’s experience, well-being, and ability to develop skills.

Parallelly, an augmented-connected workforce also drives business results and has a positive impact on key stakeholders. According to Gartner, between 2024-2027, 25% of CIOs will use augmented-connected workforce initiatives to reduce time to competency by 50% for key roles. However, enabling an augmented-connected workforce is not easy. Several employee communication and collaboration challenges must be overcome to make the augmented-connected workplace a reality. These range from employee resistance to the presence of poor productivity tools and more. Organizations must also deliver a rich and consistent experience to employees working from different locations, using different devices, and spread across departments.

This brings us to the key enabling role of audio-visual solutions.

The Role AV Plays

Ever since the hybrid workplace came into being, employee well-being has become a moving target. In an era where skill shortages are at an all-time high, unhappy, and demotivated employees only make matters worse. With suitable new talent almost impossible to recruit and existing talent difficult to retain, most organizations are struggling to achieve their business goals.

If organizations want to boost morale, improve employee experience, and ensure well-being, they need to come up with specific and carefully considered combinations of technology, tools, processes, and customizations. They must put specifically crafted approaches into place to enable, empower, and care for the distributed workforce and help employees learn, work, and engage.

To bring the augmented-connected workplace concept to life, organizations must integrate various technologies across the work environment. Such integration can streamline day-to-day tasks while empowering employees to improve their capabilities and productivity and enhance overall business processes and operations. To do this successfully, CIOs will need to increasingly focus on audiovisual (AV) solutions.

Pro AV solutions can form the backbone of enterprise communications and collaboration. Now a key part of the essential enabling infrastructure on which enterprises run, AV technology will help organizations transform the workplace – especially as the augmented-connected workforce trend settles in. Here’s how AV will help organizations ride the augmented-connected workforce wave:

• Clarity: The hybrid workforce of today expects the same quality and convenience of face-to-face communication. Pro-AV tools like the Microsoft Surface Hub 2S can enable just the same experience for remote workers. Equipped with modular cameras, two-way stereo speakers, pixel sense displays, and native 4K resolution with anti-glare features, these solutions optimize sound and display quality for workers across devices and locations.
• Productivity and efficiency: AV solutions will help establish the perfect groundwork for effective collaboration and communication. Offering intelligent, easy-to-use features, they will streamline the hybrid workforce’s communication experience and enhance day-to-day productivity and efficiency.
• Collaboration: As organizations continue to face the brunt of the growing skills gap, a strong AV backbone can make teamwork more creative and collaborative. AV solutions like Samsung Flip can enable the workforce to express ideas better while making presentations more engaging. With features that improve security, content sharing, display, and multi-user experiences, organizations can ensure that working and learning together feels inclusive and productive.
• Workplace flexibility: Modern AV solutions bring much-needed flexibility to the workplace. They will facilitate layout design changes and allow more fluidity to accommodate meetings of different formats and widely varying sizes. They will also help teams have casual and impromptu meetings and conversations and support the human connection and interaction of onsite employees.
• Sustainability: As sustainability becomes a defining factor of the overall employee experience, AV solutions can massively contribute towards energy efficiency. Products built using renewable sources of energy and environmentally friendly materials will boost satisfaction. Offering optimum lighting and clarity, they can also add to the workforce’s health, comfort, and well-being.

Regardless of the industry, every organization today needs to establish a strong foundation of technology to run its business. However, the rapid pace of technological innovation is compelling businesses to keep up with the latest trends.

As the augmented-connected workforce trend picks up steam, AV solutions act as the perfect catalyst to build the workplace of the future. Learn how Resurgent can help you establish an augmented-connected workplace with its rich experience and expertise in AV solution consulting, design, implementation, training, and support.