An Unpredictable Era at the Time of Covid-19

Abstract

In the digital-analogic transformational scenario, the SARS Covid-19 pandemic has not only accelerated digital transformation, but has generated an even deeper change: it has forced institutions (public, private, NGOs) towards a new ‘technological responsibility’, concerning the impact of technology, of AI, and of big data on people and society; moreover, it has turned the need for data literacy into a need for data culture; has changed digital skills and human abilities, by turning them from a competition into a complementarity; it has changed model assumptions and the meaning of socio-economic phenomena such as work and education. In this light, institutions need to redefine their role, connecting technologies with humans in an ethical, sustainable way. A new sustainable mindset driving an appropriate ‘digital culture’ appears, then, to be the most forceful drive to source value from technological innovation. The 5 Covid-19 pandemic challenges synthesize such a leap of culture that institutions have to undertake for a successful digital transformation.