When it comes to implementing new technologies, the cost reduction over the years has been astronomical. The stuff of sci-fi movies has become affordable.

The future is now.

That was the main takeaway from Omar Abbosh’s keynote at Inspirefest 2017 in Bord Gáis Energy Theatre, Dublin. Abbosh is the chief strategy officer at Accenture, so he knows a thing or two about disruptive technology.

“Disruption is innovation meets an existing, older business model,” he said. However, he was not speaking about explosive technology, where an older model is wiped out altogether in favour of a better, faster and cheaper technology. He was speaking about compressive disruption, where profits and cash flows of a company get squeezed over time.

Abbosh talked about the phenomenal cost reductions that happen over time with these innovations.“When we coded the first human genome in the year 2000, it cost $2.7bn,” he said. “Today, you can do that for $800.”

Words by Jenny Darmody