Issue link: https://resources.esri.ca/i/1313392
06 | GEOSPATIAL STRATEGY ESSENTIALS FOR MANAGERS MATTHEW LEWIN Complements and Substitutes When the cost of something important like spatial awareness changes, economics tells us that the value of its complements and substitutes also changes. Complements are goods or services that experience joint demand. Generally, as demand for one thing increases, demand for its complement also increases. Think of the way apps increase in popularity in conjunction with the rise of smartphones, or how pasta sauce demand goes up when demand for the pasta itself increases. An obvious complement to AI-driven spatial awareness is the judgment-based skills needed to capitalize on the analysis it generates. In the future, activities such as sophisticated cartographic visualization, geodesign, data quality assurance and spatial storytelling will be in high demand as organizations focus on making decisions informed by improved awareness. Also in demand will be applications of ethics, social justice and economic impact analysis, as these require deep consideration of subtle relationships that are currently the domain of human cognition. On the other hand, demand for some activities will almost certainly decrease as machine- based analysis and data processing increase in popularity. These are what's called substitutes in economic parlance. As geospatial technology evolves, we'll likely see a decline in roles that are readily substituted by the AI-driven model. These include manual, labour-intensive tasks like field data collection and basic map production, as well as spatial analyses that are outperformed by automated machine learning methods. Essentially any activity in a spatial workflow that doesn't require human reasoning is facing replacement by AI. Understanding the economics of geospatial technology isn't a crystal ball, but it does help surface some possible implications. Specifically, the increasing availability of spatial data and the speed and accuracy of machine learning will dramatically enhance an organization's location intelligence. This will lead to a much richer understanding of their business dynamics. In turn, demand will grow for competencies and tools that help managers develop business strategies that better reflect spatial reality. It's an exciting time for the geospatial industry. Your best move is to avoid the hype and get prepared.