Experts have been emphasizing the importance of digitalization for years, both from the point of view of large companies and SMEs, nevertheless, based on research, it seems that the level of digitalization that Hungarian businesses have is not sufficient for the time being. How can this process be accelerated? When is a significant change expected?
Regardless of the sector in which a company is present, what product or service it offers, the primary success criterion is now everywhere where the given company is in terms of digitalization maturity. This includes everything: how you address and reach your customers, how you help and facilitate the access and use of your products and services, up to invoicing and feedback management. This logic applies to everyone from the largest manufacturing or service company to the local flame oven. The competition is for ideas and quick implementation, or even more for implementation capacity and resources. I don’t think the market is doing very well in either.
Does Telekom have any predictions about the national economic benefits of the acceleration of digitalization development?
It is worth observing the results of more digitally developed countries. Based on these, it can be stated that
there is a clear parallel between economic development and growth potential, as well as the degree of digitization:
there is no segment of the economy that digital innovations would not make more profitable by increasing efficiency, productivity, and customer experience.
What focused product developments are currently taking place? Has the demand for customized solutions on the user side increased?
We continue the work we started years ago: we offer domestic businesses an alternative to solve their digitization challenges with the help of a well-known service provider with a long history and presence here. This obliges us to contribute to the success of domestic enterprises with continuous innovation and development. That is why it is not worth segmenting market needs based on whether something is realized as a product or a unique project, but rather on what drives the digital aspirations of the given industry – or the given company or enterprise – forward. Of course, there are always new things, for example, new AI-based customer service products will be available in our offer.
Domestic companies also have significant data assets, even the smallest businesses. How aware are companies of its value? How do they manage this data, how open are they to new solutions?
Awareness on the part of companies is very low, and this is not only typical of the SME sector, but also of large companies. When a company wants to introduce an artificial intelligence-related development, we start our joint work by assessing what kind of data assets the given company has and what data it could collect, but does not. Only after that can we have a meaningful conversation about what AI could be used for in the case of the given business. This is not an easy process, we know from experience. In the next few days, we will introduce our in-house HR chatbot serving our own colleagues, the development of which was preceded by serious data analysis and data collection.
What is the experience, how prepared are the companies from an IT security point of view? There are still many attacks and shutdowns. What can be done to better protect companies’ digital systems from these?
Data is an increasingly prominent asset for companies, so we highly recommend our partners to pay attention to proper protection. From this point of view
the situation is similar to that in the insurance sector: as long as nothing goes wrong, no attention is paid to it.
Not even if it has been proven that such damage can be caused after an attack, which can only be repaired with great difficulty. I see that the rise in the value of data assets will also bring a solution to this: as awareness of data increases, companies will pay more and more attention to security.
How is artificial intelligence involved in the digitization process? Does this technology have a catalytic role in such a way that those who develop can develop even faster, and those who are lagging behind fall even further behind?
The AI phenomenon cannot be interpreted locally. Of course, it speeds up and optimizes digitization processes, but there is a significantly more important aspect:
the decisive developments related to artificial intelligence take place outside of Europe.
North American companies completely dictate the market, which makes Europe vulnerable in the long term, because the more companies switch to AI-based digital operations, the more they depend on a company with a decision-making center far from the domestic market and owning the technology for example, whether you change the terms of use overnight.
A similar process took place in the field of cloud-based services: 10 years ago, when cloud technology started to become important, domestic businesses had few options: either they stayed with their own devices, which were cumbersome and expensive to operate, or they took a deep breath and they started moving out to one of the public cloud providers. This is no longer the case: there is a middle ground, since the most common data center and cloud-based services are also available here.
Recognizing the advantages of this, we are already investing a lot of time and energy in continuously expanding our portfolio in the field of artificial intelligence-based technologies and using them to provide competitive answers to the needs of the domestic market.
Based on the DESI index – which measures the digitization development of the countries of the European Union according to several different aspects – Hungary can be classified in the last third of the member states. Can this year bring progress and change? What would be necessary for domestic companies to be able to obtain better positions?
The world has become bipolar: in the field of technological developments that determine digitization, the USA and China hold leading positions.
Europe has not been able to catch up on this issue, it is currently present in the digitization competition as a user, not as an innovator or service provider, which would be optimal.
So, if we look at the global market, the DESI index can roughly be put in parentheses: it measures which of the laggards has fallen further behind.
On the other hand, if we take a closer look at the development of individual European countries, I think that there are forward-looking initiatives in Hungary. In recent years, many domestic investments have been implemented, such as the development of optical networks, thanks to which we have made progress in terms of infrastructural development. Hungary has been at the forefront of gigabit subscriptions for years, which is also due to Magyar Telekom developments. We currently have more than 3.6 million wired gigabit access on our network. In addition to infrastructure developments, it is also worth supporting businesses in the use of digitization services, programs and initiatives that promote use can achieve spectacular results in the short-to-medium term.
Infrastructure developments are necessary but not sufficient conditions for European companies to become a factor in the world economy.
If Europe wants to remain economically competitive, it must counterbalance this dominance. The strategy required for this is an increasingly pressing task for the entire European economy.
Aren’t we late for this? Would it still be possible for European and domestic companies to compete with the two digital superpowers on the AI services market?
You have to start somewhere. The first step would be for companies to retain, develop and expand their data assets. Perhaps the most important thing is that every business, big or small, should think about whether it has a concept for utilizing the information contained in its data, whether it knows how to turn it into a competitive advantage. No one should rush for AI until these questions are cleared up. If the concept is ready (AI ready), then it is worth getting started, sooner rather than later. If even just one business starts to incorporate the conscious use of data into its operations, its environment will be motivated to follow suit. And what we can’t help emphasizing: digitalization is complex, with many risks and difficult decisions, so it’s worth thinking about long-term partnerships, choosing a digital service provider with the right competencies and experience.
Cover image source: Portfolio
