The term “digital transformation” is not new, but a buzzword adopted by businesses, organisations and even educational institutions currently embracing digital tech transformation in the bid to improve their operating processes and systems. In most public and private sector operational policy, digital transformation is considered essential to an organisation’s success today, as it is intended to revolutionise how work gets done and data is applied. 

However, such development aspirations are often not focused on productive work-life change, which Professor Mark Findlay, director of Centre for AI and Data Governance (CAIDG), highlights in his paper, Living Digital Transformation. His emphasis: The need for digital transformation to be human-centric, especially in light of its sustainability and overarching impact. 

To share more on this insight, the CAIDG has developed a working concept, Living Digital Transformation (LDT) with regards to data use, policy, regulation and governance.

What Is Digital Transformation?

Put simply, digital transformation refers to the integration of digital technologies and integrated data management to create new – or modify existing – processes and procedures. However, Prof Findlay believes that digital transformation needs to be human-centric for it to remain viable and relevant because “digital transformation is too often captured by business organisation consultants advising management on how to increase efficiency and minimise cost”. 

Herein lies the problem: most of the time, digital transformation processes do not have actual stakeholders and their communities in mind. Using universities as an example, Prof Findlay explains “The data on which digital transformation feeds is created by messages between people, [and] it is these ‘people’ who are the life-blood of university communities (students, teachers, researchers, support staff), [however they] sometimes get left out of the policy modelling except for random focus groups and surveys.”

For instance, the introduction of CCTV cameras and biometric technology to surveil university workplaces do not necessarily have the data subjects as end-users in mind. While university management view this tech as a way of ensuring efficiency and maintaining security in the campus, students and staff, on the other hand, who are often not consulted on this move, could see it as an intrusion of their personal space and privacy. 

This is why Prof Findlay emphasises in his paper that “the objective of any digital initiative should not fixate on the digital technology, but rather to focus on transformation that supports human wellbeing”. 

He goes on to explain that the aspect of “living” in this instance implies that the digital transformation is meant to improve the quality and comfort of one’s work and life experiences, while ensuring “safe digital life-spaces and link to life-long learning”. By doing so, it ensures that it is the humans (otherwise known as data subjects and end users) who will lead the transformation. 

The Pandemic’s Effect on Digital Transformation 

It is clear that the pandemic has accelerated digital transformation across the globe – we have never had to rely on so much digital technology to go about our day as much as in the last two years as when retailers pivoted to e-commerce to keep their businesses afloat, while educational institutions, from primary to tertiary, turned to online classes to ensure that students could continue learning.

But while technological advancements have offered viable alternatives to the way we work, learn and play when social engagement is constrained, Professor Findlay has noted that the pandemic has “emphasised the importance of social interaction when it has been restricted or denied”. So while there are educational institutions, including  universities which intend to continue with a majority of online teaching formats even after the pandemic is behind us [and SMU is not one of them], and while some students might appreciate the convenience of learning on the go, “the majority are craving classroom interaction and campus life experience”, he shares. 

In short, “the pandemic has shown us where tech should replace human interaction and where it should not”.

Ensuring LDT’s Sustainability 

So how should educational institutions, such as universities, ensure that LDT remains sustainable and more importantly, serves its true purpose of being useful to the end-users? 

Professor Findlay suggests six ways: 

#1: LDT Driven by Digital Natives

“Society has lived without digital transformation since before the last industrial revolution and it can now,” says Prof Findlay. Ultimately, he believes that “digital transformation is not the only answer to fundamental questions and challenges for modern universities even with their inflated business tools”. 

In his paper, he adds that living digital transformation should emphasise “seamless tech enhancement from the bottom up”, and not be seen as a “disruptive tech intrusion”. To do so, living digital transformation needs to be inclusive, mindful and adaptable and needs to include the entire university ecosystem, which includes students, faculty and even university staff, while still being able to keep pace with new technology and ideas at the same time. 

#2: Creating A Safe Digital Space to Learn and Grow 

Digital learning spaces should be more than just a place for learning and growth; they need to be engaging and open spaces, says Prof Findlay. For example, universities need to function as both a provider and protector of knowledge. At the same time, to ensure that “humans” are kept in the loop, teachers should not transit their entire class schedule into digital environments, as he argues that “interaction, engagement and two-way communication between students and instructor needs to continue as a prerogative”.

In short, online lessons should never be a substitute for in-person, face-to-face learning experiences. 

Prof Findlay adds that steps must also be taken to ensure that users, such as students and university staff, learn new online etiquette, such as policies to prevent cyberbullying and cyber harassment as well as personal data integrity and protection, to ensure the digital space remains safe. 

#3: Taming Technology Within the Community 

According to Prof Findlay, there is a real risk in digital transformation of seeing machines and data as devoid of human involvement and inspiration.  

He explains that humans have to be at the forefront and in control of the digital narrative and revolution for technology to be “tamed”. This is important because digital transformation “needs to look out into the communities in which tech is deployed and understand their fears and priorities for technology”.

To circumvent this danger of machine over human transformation, Prof Findlay advises to “see technology as part of specific communities with responsibilities, just like any other stakeholder that is mutual and respectful”. 

#4: Enhancing Responsible Data Access Through Digital Self-Determination

Prof Findlay’s paper notes that it is important to prioritise the protection of data subjects, especially where personal data is accessed, collected, stored, utilised and repurposed. In doing so, the data gathered and the autonomy of the subjects have to be respected, in that the subjects are allowed to choose to share their data or not. The potential of more sustainable data access is then unlocked in such a safe data exchange.

#5: Preparing for Transiting Work Futures

It’s natural to fear the unknown, and that is why Prof Findlay adds that it is important to equip learners with the digital know-how and skillsets to prepare them for the future of this fourth industrial revolution. This is crucial for the sustainability of digital transformation anywhere. 

“It is not so much about maintaining the pace of tech transformation and teaching Grandma to use her encoded $100 voucher, but rather maintaining the commitment to AI in a community where technology complements the aspirations and ingenious potentials of young human minds,” he shares. 

Prof Findlay adds that “tech must be seen as the partner to human ingenuity and the support to sustainable human communities”. Ultimately, he shares that the “greatest advantage digital transformation can offer Singaporeans is to help them transit from traditional and predictable planned life-futures to the capacity to cope with change”. 

This, Prof Findlay believes, is not just a social and digital responsibility, but the “essential responsibility for LDT”. 

#6: Aligning University Service Provision and The Communities Served 

To ensure that the digital data gathered is protected and respected, Prof Findlay recommends to draw from the CAIDG Ethics Hub to facilitate ethical digital transformation. He explains that this is important as it can help identify any communication blind spots and blockages in the translation of the digital transformation. At the same time, it can employ “the views of digital natives in constructing a language of transformation and a set of realistic aspirations” in the design “to improve the working life-space” of the people in the community. In essence, “digital transformation cannot be seen as a way of profit maximising at the expense of job satisfaction,” he adds.  

SMU As the Perfect LDT Example 

Prof Findlay finds that SMU is the perfect example for demonstrating the sustainability of LDT practices. The university is a living environment in the heart of a city and he believes it can “provide real engagement with the rest of the city centre”, becoming “a living laboratory” where its digital transformation would be interconnected and researched in adjacent to the institution’s surroundings and Singapore as a smart city. 

“For instance, it should research how social infrastructure in smart city developments could maintain the kampung spirit in city neighbourhoods experiencing rapid urban transformation,” he suggests.

The Next Chapter For LDT

Prof Findlay opines that in order for any transformation to be meaningful and sustainable, it has to receive widespread endorsement from the community, which in this instance, are the students, faculty and staff of SMU. 

Thus, when it comes to the future of LDT and what we can look forward to, he says that as “universities are incubators for the world of the future and launching pads for young minds, those young minds should not just be made ready to turn a new idea into money, but also to adapt with the digital transformation to ensure that the world they will live in tomorrow will be sustainable for them and the next generation”. 

At the end of the day, “innovation must be for sustainability and Living Digital Transformation is about employing change for social good”, he explains. More importantly, he emphasises that this is not a mere “euphemistic dream” but an “essential reality” to ensure that digital transformation will make “for a better life experience”.