Auswahl der wissenschaftlichen Literatur zum Thema „Acceleration of Digitalization“

The article demonstrates that information and digital technologies play a special role in the genesis of a new technological paradigm and acceleration of technological development. The digital reality in which the humanity lives today is largely determined by the ideas that developed in the 1960s and 1970s of the twentieth century: these are the ideas of hypertext, graphical user interface, and the global information network, as well as the deriving from the above mentioned idea of the personal computer as a device with a widest range of applications in almost any area of human life. The author examines the scenarios of positive and negative future presented both in scientific literature and in works of mass culture, and shows that the future of digital civilization is determined only by the human.

The rapid acceleration of social processes in society under the influence of digitalization affects the key areas of social life, including medicine. The author examines the impact of digital technologies on the provision of health care services and analyzes the nature of doctor-patient communication and its growing complexity. The use of high-tech software in medicine causes the need to create relevant educational programs for specialists either in medicine or information technology. Moreover, the digitalization of health care system makes the need in new professions more urgent. For instance, the appearance of IT-doctors, who specialize in creating digital medical programs using artificial intelligence algorithms based on medical sciences. The study reveals the emergence of a three-way communication «patient – physician – IT manager». The research dwells on the ambivalent impact of digitalization on the provision of health care services and the social stratification of individuals in society.

The pace of digitalization of the insurance industry lags behind similar processes in the banking sector. The main tasks that a Russian insurer solves when using IT technologies are the automation of business operations and the formation of an online system of interaction with customers with the main focus on sales.The purpose of this study is to systematize the effects achieved by insurance market participants when introducing IT technologies and identify incentives to accelerate the insurance sector digitalization. The goal of digitalization of Russian insurers should be the formation of a client interface with a full cycle of services; the transfer to a qualitatively new level of business processes while ensuring the required level of protection; formation of fundamentally new and timely renewal of the existing insurance products. The priority areas of IT technologies used by Russian insurers are identified: cloud computing, chat bots, and information resources that provide online interaction with customers. Factors that have a stimulating effect on the digitalization of the insurance sector are identified: cost reduction, acceleration of business processes, improvement of the quality of customer service and increased competitiveness. The problems and risks of insurers that restrain the use of IT technologies are formulated: high costs of digitalization, lack of qualified personnel, cyber risks, moral and ethical problems.

Digitalization represents a paramount process started some decades ago, but which received a strong acceleration by Industry 4.0 and now directly impacts all the process and manufacturing sectors. It is expected to allow the European industry to increase its production efficiency and its sustainability. In particular, in the energy-intensive industries, such as the steel industry, digitalization concerns the application of the related technologies to the production processes, focusing on two main often overlapping directions: Advanced tools for the optimization of the production chain and specific technologies for low-carbon and sustainable production. Furthermore, the rapid evolution of the technologies in the steel sector require the continuous update of the skills of the industrial workforce. The present review paper, resulting from a recent study developed inside a Blueprint European project, introduces the context of digitalization and some important definitions in both the European industry and the European iron and steel sector. The current technological transformation is depicted, and the main developments funded by European Research Programs are analyzed. Moreover, the impact of digitalization on the steel industry workforce are considered together with the foreseen economic developments.