Let’s be honest, Covid has made a lot of us reflect on our careers and how Covid safe they are. In 2020 we witnessed structural labour disruptions, but essential services carrying on so it is only natural to look at which jobs and industries seem to be safe and prospering. The IT sector not only proved Covid safe – e.g. networks still needed to be maintained, security of infrastructure ensured, websites built – but in recent years it has been presenting as a very exciting industry, particularly in the realms of blockchain technology, IoT, cyber security and artificial intelligence.

Blockchain technology is relatively new but its potential applications are vast. It can be used to assist operations in the warehouses of large e-commerce stores such as Amazon and even track monetary transactions in our financial system to reduce the risk of fraud.

The Internet of Things (IoT) is one of the most revolutionary changes to our world, sometimes referred to as the fourth industrial revolution. Think of it as the connectedness of everything to each other. According to PricewaterhouseCoopers in a 2018 report which studied five industries representing 25% of Australia’s GDP, IoT has potential annual benefits of $194-308 billion over a period of 8-18 years.

As the geopolitical situation changes rapidly, cybersecurity has become one of the priority areas for the Australian government. As our digital capabilities and connectedness grows, our intellectual property and trade secrets need greater protection from being accessed and shared by third parties. This is why the Australian government in 2020 announced it would be investing $1.67 billion over the next 10 years to help bolster the nation’s cyber security.

Artificial intelligence is helping bring in incredible insights and efficiency into corporate marketing and sales divisions. Companies with large numbers of customers need easy segmenting to calculate different pricing strategies and work out customer lifetime values, which big data is helping to drive.

This is only an indication of some of the exciting topics and changes in the area of information technology and over the coming years it is only going to accelerate!

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