CONTACT Magazine (Vol.18 No.2 – September 2018)

A note from
the editor
There are robots performing surgical operations in
hospital. There are robots greeting and looking
after bank customers. There are robot “assistants”
looking after people’s houses. There’s a robot model
called Pepper which can conduct a basic conversation with
you, registering your gestures, expressions and mood.
There’s another called Linda which cheers up melancholy
senior citizens in care homes.
Machines designed to function like humans are just
one part – though perhaps the most dramatic part – of
the great wave of automation that is washing around the
world. It has been reshaping retail and financial services for
a good while, and is swirling into just about every other
area of commercial activity. Young entrepreneurs are riding
the wave already; but the older we are, the harder it is to
adjust to a world where data is the new gold, where you
trade in invisible currencies, and cars drive themselves through
the streets.
How ready is Trinidad and Tobago to cope with this
transformation? Are we ahead of the game or lagging behind?
What does the digital wave mean for the business world?
That’s the theme of this issue of Contact.
We assembled some of the country’s technology experts to
take a hard look at the state of digital T&T. What can we expect
to happen to familiar parts of the business world – jobs, money,
payments, manufacturing, marketing, communications, business
models? What do we need to do to get ourselves ready to cope
with the coming disruption?
Many of the answers are still up for debate. Whether you
agree or disagree with our experts’ conclusions, we welcome
your feedback and opinions if you feel like contributing to the
discussion.
www.chamber.org.tt/contact-magazine 07
Trinidad and Tobago Chamber
of Industry and Commerce