Top 5 Technology Trends for Field Work in 2023

Technology has played a huge role in the business world, with emerging digital trends disrupting entire industries. Field operations have already seen these changes over the past few years, with paper-based systems quickly becoming a thing of the past, and automation and AI transforming the way work gets done. However, the digital revolution is far from over. 

With new technology and ever-changing consumer demands comes new trends and expectations. This article explores the trends we expect to play a huge role in the field work sector in 2023.

Automation

Many field work operations are manual and extremely time consuming. Often, workers have to spend large chunks of time on admin-heavy tasks, meaning their time is being taken away from other areas. 

Thankfully, the use of automation in the workplace is increasing, and this year we expect to see a huge rise in businesses using smart technology to automate administrative tasks. This includes things such as:

• Parts inventory
• Assigning tasks
• Scheduling appointments
• Invoicing
• Managing customer relations

By automating everyday tasks, operations will run more efficiently and ensure more time is spent on critical tasks.

Conversational AI

Conversational AI capabilities continue to become more advanced and as a result, more businesses are recognising their benefits. With 70% of workers already interacting regularly with conversational platforms, we expect to see this number increase as businesses look to automate operations and become more agile.

We have written previously about the huge range of benefits Conversational AI offers the field work sector, including:

• Saving time for employees
• Being portable and hands free
• Improving data quality
• Increasing staff satisfaction
• Offering actionable insights and data

Conversational AI technology can be easily integrated into your existing interfaces and offers much quicker user experiences for your workforce.

Predictive maintenance

Predictive maintenance is a method that uses data science and analytics to analyse equipment condition and predict when maintenance is required. It helps businesses to estimate when a piece of equipment might fail so that corrective measures can be put in place before the point of failure. 

More and more businesses are recognising the benefits of having predictive maintenance in place as the run-to-failure model is not practical or cost efficient. In fact, it offers many benefits for a business, including:

• Helping equipment last longer 
• Minimising the amount of unexpected equipment failures
• Increasing asset lifetime
• Reducing operational and maintenance costs
• Improving safety
• Increasing productivity and ROI

Plus, with this report by Deloitte showing that predictive maintenance increases productivity by 25%, reduces breakdowns by 70% and lowers maintenance costs by 25%, it really is surprising that it’s taken businesses this long to jump on the predictive maintenance wagon.

AR and VR

Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) are often written off as being for video games or novelty entertainment. However, they offer huge benefits for the field work sector.

More organisations are looking to replace bulky manuals and devices with tools that offer better user experiences and hands-free capabilities. AR and VR devices allow information to be readily available in an immersive format that can be used for multiple purposes when it comes to field operations. This includes:

• Delivering on the job training
• Improving customer experiences
• Providing a content/ knowledge library
• Diagnosing and troubleshooting issues
• Improving collaboration and communication

Whilst AR and VR could be seen as a huge shift for the sector, they offer unmatched immersive experiences that more companies will be looking to adopt this year.

Big Data

Every business in the field work sector needs to gather data. Having data and analytics is crucial to understanding what is working, what isn’t and how to improve. With more businesses recognising the importance of not only collecting data but also analysing it to gain insights, Big Data is arguably the biggest trend to watch in 2023.

With so much data collected on a daily basis, having real-time information to analyse directly enables more efficient field work operations, such as:

• More effective training programs
• Higher workforce utilisation
• Optimised travel routes
• Improved scheduling and service quality
• Demand forecasting
• Real-time tracking
• Better decision making

Big data and analytics are probably the more powerful tools a business can have to determine its growth and profitability for the future. 

Looking ahead

Technology continues to get smarter and more innovative, meaning the opportunities for the field work sector to implement cutting-edge solutions and transform their operations is a huge focus for 2023. 

At Wluper, we are working on ​​unique voice-based AI technology, giving you access to a powerful voice and language understanding solution on any device. Using advanced NLU, we allow users to speak more naturally than ever before. No scripts or patterns, simply speak as you normally would and our voice-based technology will understand. 

Learn more about our TrueUnderstanding™ API or book a live demo to see Wluper in action.

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