In its annual predictions, Gartner outlines trends that it anticipates will shape IT and businesses for the coming year. In the 2020 list, Gartner’s experts predict that by 2023, 30% of all IT organizations will have expanded their Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policies to include Bring Your Own Enhancement (BYOE) in order to address the role of human augmentation technology in the workplace.
Being included in Gartner’s list has given more focus to this ever-growing area of technology while shedding light on ways that businesses can take advantage of it. Among the many benefits that this technology brings, augmented workers are able to improve overall workplace productivity and safety. This type of technology is particularly prevalent in the automotive, oil and gas, retail, and healthcare industries.
As human augmentation technology and enhancements become more mainstream, businesses will need to figure out ways to take advantage of this type of technology while also maintaining network security. Gartner’s experts suggest that this will largely consist of a balancing act between maintaining some control over these devices while also allowing employees to use them and letting the organization take advantage of the benefits that they bring. Ideally, a well-crafted BYOE policy will let businesses safely, securely, and appropriately embrace the benefits of human augmentation.
What is Human Augmentation?
Human augmentation is technology that creates cognitive and physical improvements. Broadly speaking, it’s something that adds to the human, enhancing capabilities and productivity. It’s important to note that human augmentation is not a solution, but rather is a tool that can be used.
Human augmentation is a field of technology that is focused on improving human capabilities. The best results from this type of technology come from combining some amount of AI and human collaboration. Additionally, human augmentation is able to facilitate the read/write capabilities between humans and machines as well as between humans themselves.
The idea of augmented workers is becoming increasingly mainstream, specifically in the area of wearables. Wearable devices are portable, convenient, and efficient, and, as a result, this is an area that is expected to grow over the next few years. These devices are already being utilized in some industries, including manufacturing, logistics, and mining, where these devices increase productivity, safety, and efficiency while also reducing human error.
Primary Types of Human Augmentation
While wearables are currently the most common type of enhancement, they are only one example of physical augmentations that are currently available. Augmentation technology broadly falls into two categories, physical and cognitive. For the moment, businesses are primarily focused on physical augmentations. These are augmentations that improve physical abilities through the implanting or hosting of technology on the body. Types of physical augmentation include sensory, appendage, brain, and genetic. For the most part, sensory and appendage augmentation is what businesses are currently embracing.
Some examples of physical augmentation that are already being used include smart glasses, smartwatches, smart gloves, head-mounted displays, cameras, audio devices, sensors in clothing, virtual reality eye-tracking, gesture-controlled devices, exoskeleton suits, and augmented reality glasses.
