Assessing the current state of affairs for the technology industry, the “Accenture Technology Vision 2018” report just released by Accenture PLC surveyed more than 6,300 businesses and information technology executives. Among the key vectors of innovation — such as extended reality or data veracity — a critical component to the way technology companies do business moving forward is centered around social responsibility and building trust with the general population, the report concluded.

“Now companies are really starting to take a bigger look at how they’re changing their industry, how they’re embedding themselves into people’s lives. And more and more they’re starting to talk about what are their real responsibilities to society as a whole,” said Michael Biltz (pictured), managing director of Accenture Technology Vision at Accenture Technology Labs. 

Biltz spoke with Jeff Frick (@JeffFrick), host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, during the Accenture Technology Vision event in San Francisco to discuss the outlook for technology companies in 2018.

The impact of trust to the bottom line

Rapidly advancing disruptive technology across all industries has some consumers, particularly outside of Silicon Valley, questioning the efficacy of such rapid innovation. Amid data breaches, regulatory fiascos, environmental concerns and the like, consumers are paying closer attention to the fine print and societal impacts behind a company’s product or service, according to Biltz.

“Everybody is starting to read the label of companies. … They’re fundamentally actually looking at not just what they’re producing, but why they’re producing it, what the ripple effects are, and how it’s going to effect things at large,” Biltz explained.

Companies themselves have started to take notice and are focusing their efforts on building a higher degree of trust and authenticity in their relationships with consumers. This is particularly true for organizations that depend on consumer-generated data as a central piece of their business model, as government regulations are requiring more transparency about collection and use of data.

“We’re at this interesting point that companies know that if they can’t get the trust and the data to make those next set of products, then they’re not going to be in business. So they’re policing themselves,” Biltz concluded.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of the Accenture Technology Vision event.

Photos: SiliconANGLE