The arrival of the iPhone marked a turning point in consumer and enterprise IT. The proliferation of apps powered by the cloud created instantaneous access to a new mobile way of working. This was increasingly felt in the workplace, as consumers could now operate in a more mobile fashion than ever before as people, information and applications were brought together.

The device also represented the start of a much larger and fundamental shift in the interplay between technology, worker and the enterprise. The importance of user centric, enterprise grade applications became more important than ever, and this remains the case today.

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As the iPhone celebrates its ten-year anniversary this month, we are now sitting on the cusp of complete parity, where our enterprise technology should resemble and be as simple to use as consumer technology. If you look at how we work, most of the technology that we use day to day feels like, and is indistinguishable from, consumer software – because enterprise software has become deceptively simple to use, yet underneath the surface it is becoming much more powerful than ever before.

But what’s next?

How we build on the transformation brought about by the iPhone and what we do with mobile and cloud based business applications, could define the next revolution of the way we work. For instance, what happens when we apply intelligence to mobile and cloud based business applications?

There is a whole range of outcomes, everything from saving time to completely changing business or human outcomes because of intelligent technology, such as artificial intelligence. To quote, Sundar Pichai “AI is the new mobile”.

The starting point, and the first step in the next phase of this revolution, will address the time spent (and wasted) on doing things that literally require no thought. If we can apply intelligence to enable a computer to do these repetitive tasks, we can start to save 20, 30, 40% of our time which can be applied elsewhere.

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At the other end of the spectrum, intelligent business applications (fuelled by AI) will do things that people weren’t doing in the first place and aid us in a way that wasn’t possible previously. AI can become extremely powerful and take all of the data that we create, and apply it in a highly precise way, which no individual could ever do because they weren’t able to process all of the data and information.

AI and intelligent software is an enabling technology as opposed to a disruptive one: it can dramatically enhance our existing tools and processes. As the relationship between mobile technologies and the cloud evolve into a more intelligent, intuitive, and dynamic ecosystem, with artificial intelligence at the heart, we will continue to see revolutionary ways of working.

Sourced by David Benjamin, general manager and SVP of Box EMEA