Trust and values to take centre stage in APAC

In 2022, building customer trust and investing in sustainability efforts will be key priorities for Asia Pacific’s business leaders, according to Forrester’s 2022 predictions for APAC business and technology leaders.

Why it matters

After dealing with pandemic-related disorder, turbulence and uncertainty for close to two years, APAC organisations are expected to implement future-fit technology strategies – such as cloud-native approaches to improve business agility and usher in a new era of regionally aligned hybrid-work strategies – in order to lay the foundations for competing on the next battlefield of building customer trust and tackling climate change.

Key insights

• APAC firms will appoint a dedicated sustainability lead at a rate that’s less than half the global average, as values-based consumers make firms more aware of corporate social responsibility and sustainability.
• Financial services will be the first industry to adopt trust as a formal metric as firms use trust to demonstrate commitment to customer relationships – in response to concerns over public health, cybersecurity, data privacy and sustainability.
• APAC governments lead the world in implementing the three pillars of a digital society: digital identity, digital currency and data interoperability.
• Thirty percent of APAC firms with cloud-first strategies will shift to cloud-native, with such technologies transcending major technology domains, including big data, AI and the internet of things.