HP’s Val Gabriel discusses the importance of achieving digital equity, especially with the growing presence of disruptive tech.
In June, tech giant HP released a study on how global business leaders and government officials are working to achieve sustainability and community goals.
The study – which was conducted in partnership with Oxford Economics – surveyed 1,032 respondents, of which 51pc were business executives and 49pc were government officials, across the countries of Canada, Germany, India, Japan, Mexico, France, the UK, Brazil, China and the US.
Results of the survey found that tech is considered crucial to achieving these goals. For example, more than three-quarters of respondents agree that using AI in their organisation will help drive social and environmental benefits. The same amount of respondents also believe that tech is key to enabling “traditionally excluded” populations to participate in the economy.
The report also found that nearly half of respondents are already using AI in their organisations to achieve goals such as resource efficiency and workforce diversity, while more expect to use AI in the next two years to achieve the same goals.
However, as well as highlighting the potential benefits of emerging technologies, the respondents also acknowledged that this tech could widen the digital divide.
The digital divide refers to the unequal access to digital technologies such as smartphones, laptops and the internet, which can put people at a significant disadvantage in the information age.
This divide is a considerable issue worldwide. For example, statistics from the World Economic Forum from the start of 2024 state that 2.6bn people around the world have no internet access.
According to Val Gabriel, managing director of HP Ireland, the most significant barrier that excluded populations face in accessing digital technology is the lack of “outside support”.
“This digital divide is an issue that no single entity can resolve alone,” he says, adding that this is why HP collaborate with both local and international organisations in their efforts to address the divide.
“These partners serve as our ‘on-the-ground’ allies and help us identify where HP can have the most significant impact and create change by providing these people with hardware, connectivity, quality content and digital literacy.”
The importance of education
When it comes to addressing the digital divide, HP has been involved in numerous initiatives, with the company claiming to have accelerated digital equity for more than 45m people since 2021, bringing the organisation nearly a third of the way to its goal of reaching 150m people by 2030.
One example of these initiatives is the collaboration between Indonesia’s Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology and HP’s Semangat Guru programme, which is designed to upskill Indonesian educators to adapt to digital transformation.
According to Gabriel, one of the best ways to enable digital equity is to “empower educators”, such as with the Semangat Guru programme. He says that this programme trained more than half a million teachers during its first three years, with 250,000 of those trained in 2023 alone.
Another of HP’s initiatives is its partnership with nonprofit organisation Prayoga, which aims to inspire the interest of young people in getting involved in STEM subjects using “experiential science learning”.
But while initiatives such as these are growing in number and efficiency, Gabriel emphasises the role that policymakers play in supporting these projects, which they can do by “continuing to listen to the issues these organisations face and providing them with what they need in order to carry out their work in helping these communities”.
“In doing so, policymakers will not only be having a huge positive impact on these people’s lives but will also benefit their own countries by facilitating educational and innovative growth among its citizens through their use of digital technologies, all of which comes back to benefit society as a whole in the long run.”
According to the HP-Oxford Economics report, a top priority for the majority of respondents is improving access to digital education. With emerging and innovative tech like generative AI becoming increasingly integrated in society, digital education is more important than ever, as without it, communities may miss out on the social and economic benefits of this technology.
“The digital divide has the potential of becoming more apparent with the advent of AI if the right education and access to technology is not given,” says Gabriel. “For those of us who are familiar with digital technologies, we can already start to see the benefits of it.
“Yet, for those who are not, it simply is another hurdle for them to overcome in their journey to become more digitally literate. That is why we need to continue our work towards digital equity.”
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