A recent survey by PwC (PricewaterhouseCoopers), titled “Digital Readiness Survey 2024: Fast Forward or Fall Behind,” reveals a growing urgency among Caribbean business leaders to adapt to rapid technological advances and shifting customer expectations.
The survey, which included CEOs and executives of leading Caribbean businesses, found that while nearly 70% view their CEO as a champion for digital transformation, less than half (42%) believe their organization’s digital transformation is on track and proceeding quickly enough. Only 25% strongly agree that their company encourages innovation and adaptability.
Interestingly, about half (47%) of the Caribbean businesses surveyed see a return on their digital investments. Furthermore, 45% of respondents view artificial intelligence (AI) as the most critical technology to their company’s strategy today, a figure expected to rise to 52% in three years as the transformational impact of AI accelerates.
However, more than a third of respondents (37%) believe their organization faces a survival-level threat from digital disruption.
Zia Paton, Digital Solutions Leader at PwC in the Caribbean, commented on the findings, stating, “Our report underscores the increasing urgency felt by boards, the C-suite, and business teams as they try to keep pace with rapid advances in technology and shifting customer expectations. AI is creating a catalyst for innovation and business model reinvention on one side, and a high degree of uncertainty and concern on the other.”
Paton added, “Well-targeted investments in systems and skills are clearly critical. But they’re not enough on their own to accelerate transformation and move out in front. The businesses reaping the digital dividend are marked by the boldness of their ambition, the readiness of their workforce to embrace new possibilities, and their agility and resilience in the face of continual disruption and change.”
The survey also found that a surprisingly high proportion of respondents (55%) are still not fully utilizing data tools across all operational activities, even though this is key to cost control and improved productivity. Similarly, only 17% report that data analytics plays a central and critical role in guiding decision-making and processes.
The survey highlights the step-up in investment in workforce upskilling, with most (52%) investing in new tools to accomplish this. When respondents were asked about the barriers to upskilling their workforce, the top three were: lack of time (40%), lack of budget (36%), and lack of strategic focus on training (28%).
Among the biggest challenges facing businesses as they look to accelerate digital transformation and realize the return is how – and how quickly – to retire and replace their legacy systems. Only 53% have been able to prioritize the technology and infrastructure changes that will have the biggest impact on their business. And 37% have implemented design thinking and/or agile methodologies for technology upgrades.
Concerns over cybersecurity further highlight the challenges of creating and running a digitally-powered organization. More than half of the respondents (55%) acknowledge that their ability to safeguard sensitive data and defend against emerging threats needs improvement.
Amazing that this is published at Month end , when Dominicans are at the ATMs waiting in long queues and complaining about the inefficient services of our financial institutions.
How can we go digital or even employ the use of AI, which is still in it’s infancy, when our bank can not even allow merchants to process credit card payments over the phone with pictures of IDs and authorization? The world of digital commerce is too murky even for those who created it , that’s why they have scams amounting to billions of dollars each year.
Our bank needs to learn how to maintain the ATM’s and facilitate basic telegraphic transfer in a timely manner before we can think about digital commerce in Dominica.