Fujitsu, digital trust and the future of technology

Strike a balance between the utilization of data and the protection of data

Opening the event, Hiroshi Tsuda, head of Security Laboratory at Fujitsu Labs, set the tone by acknowledging that every enterprise and consumer must understand the balance between the utilization and efficiency of data and the associated privacy and protection. Other speakers and panelists at the symposium echoed that theme of balance, each taking a different spin on how balance could be achieved and, most importantly, who bears the responsibility for striking and maintaining balance, as well as remediating any negative consequences caused by mistakes. Tsuda also presented the results of the Fujitsu Global Digital Transformation Survey Report, a survey of 900 business leaders in nine countries that provides insight into their process in digital transformation and to clarify how business leaders around the world perceive trust.

Delivering the Fujitsu Keynote, CEO of Fujitsu Labs Hirotaka Hara explained that the company’s long-standing slogan, “Reliability and Creativity” had been replaced with “Digital Trust and Co-Creation.” For Fujitsu, “digital trust” includes pushing for social acceptance of AI, which requires IT services vendors and technology companies to create “explainable AI” to overcome current reluctance among many companies and individuals to fully accept judgments made by algorithms, rather than humans. In TBR’s view, Fujitsu’s expressed appreciation of the challenges in AI adoption comes as a welcome relief from the hype heard from other IT services and software vendors. Further, the updated slogan reflects a clear evolution from basic reliability of technology and systems to more essential and compelling trust, while the shift from creativity to co-creation moves the conversation from Fujitsu acting alone in R&D to interacting with clients, creating together.

Advancing the trust theme, Hara explained that Fujitsu Laboratories “ensures digital trust through technologies, to include a wide range of solutions, ideas and competencies, such as smart contracts, authentication, compliance, data traceability management and cybersecurity — all with trust at the center.” Multiple IT services vendors and consultancies throughout 2019 have centered events, presentations and use cases around trust, but few have described the ecosystem and diverse elements as comprehensively as Fujitsu. And few have been as direct and succinct as Fujitsu, which stated, “Digital trust is the foundation to achieving digital transformation.”

In TBR’s June 2019 Digital Transformation Insights Report: Voice of the Customer, we quoted the CEO of a global healthcare company on trust and the various roles IT services vendors and their clients must play. Echoing Fujitsu’s sentiments around trust, that CEO said, “Responsibility needs to be an integral part of the overall business and technology landscape for any company, and I strongly suspect that we will see a resurgence of some of the other traditional roles and technology.” In all, Fujitsu, through Hara’s remarks and comments made throughout the day, demonstrated a grounded, hype-free understanding that the challenges of digital transformation do not come from the technologies, but from the ecosystem and the people. And the initial steps to transformation depend on digital trust.

Fujitsu Laboratories Advanced Technology Symposium (FLATS) 2019: Around 400 people gathered in Santa Clara, Calif., for a full day of presentations and panels centered on data security and the need to balance user and regulatory requirements around privacy with expectations around rich online experiences, leading to deep discussions about ethics, transparency and trust. Hosted by Fujitsu Laboratories and attended by more engineers than entrepreneurs, the event surprisingly stayed focused on applying technology for societal good, to build ecosystems of trust, and to protect consumers’ data and privacy. Fujitsu Labs showed off its ground-breaking technological advancements and innovations in an exhibit hall but kept main-stage conversation rooted in the application of technology in a messy and uncertain world.