Digitalisation is often seen as a promise of salvation for a wide range of everyday challenges and a better, simpler future. The SOFI impulse paper examines the extent to which this promise is currently being reassessed and what remains of it.
To this end, the three areas of e-commerce, autonomous driving and the situation of the major US tech companies are presented and subjected to a reassessment. Disillusionment can be observed in all three areas.
Autonomous driving is once again being more strictly regulated, the timetables announced by the industry are proving to be unrealistic and the performance of the systems is falling short of social expectations. Disappointment is also setting in in the e-commerce sector. One reason for this is the demystification of the business field: e-commerce is ultimately also expensive and time-consuming logistics work. Established companies with a broad network of stores often have an advantage and can now take over financially ailing start-ups at comparatively low cost. The position paper sees the former pioneering role of major US tech companies such as Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, Microsoft, Snapchat and X (formerly Twitter) in innovation dwindling. The companies are increasingly competing with each other, which is reducing the margins achieved in the core business. Furthermore, not all investments in digitalisation projects pay off.
In conclusion, the impulse paper emphasises that digitalisation is still progressing, despite exhausted promises. This is also because the high expectations of digitalisation processes are a cyclical phenomenon. Ultimately, the reality check is helpful, as digitalisation is no longer seen as the one solution, but as one of many solutions.
