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Featured Futurist: In A 5G Future Physical Work Won’t Require Your Physical Presence, Forbes
Technology decentralises products and services, and now it's decentralising all manner of jobs that previously could only be done if people were physically present.
Cite or link to this article
Griffin, M. (2021) 'Featured Futurist: In A 5G Future Physical Work Won’t Require Your Physical Presence, Forbes', 311 Institute, 26 November. Available at: https://www.311institute.com/featured-futurist-in-a-5g-future-physical-work-wont-require-your-physical-presence-forbes/ (Accessed: 1 October 2026).
Firstly, thanks to Nick and the team at Forbes for asking me to contribute to their latest T-Mobile Brand Voice article, which is a part of a much larger series of work I’m doing for T-Mobile, where we discussed the impact 5G will have on what we dubbed “Tele-X.” Or, to put it another way, the impact that 5G’s ultra-fast speeds and ultra-low latencies will have on the ability of people in one place to do things in another.
Things such as being able to perform Tele-Surgery where surgeons in one country can operate on people thousands of miles away using 5G and robotics to revolutionise the healthcare industry, something alone that could save over 50 million lives a year and help a further 140 million people who today don’t have access to surgeons or surgical facilities. Or being able to control drone construction equipment to build buildings thousands of miles away as we saw with Doosan in Germany.
All of which is just the tip of the iceberg and you can read all about these and many other amazing use cases in the article:
Source: Forbes
What this means for your organisation
Physical work goes remote.
Ultra-fast, low-latency networks let people control machines far away. Surgery and construction are early examples. Physical presence is no longer required for many skilled tasks.
Skills can reach new places.
Tele-surgery could help millions who lack access to surgeons. Expertise can be shared across borders. Firms could serve markets where they have no local staff.
Networks and robots are the base.
Remote work of this kind depends on 5G and robotics together. Weak links in either break the model. Invest in both before scaling remote operations.
Three questions for your next leadership meeting
- Which of our physical tasks could be done remotely over 5G?
- Where could our experts serve customers without travelling?
- Is our network and robotics base ready for tele-operations?
The trends and technologies behind this story
From the 311 Starburst, the 311 Strategic Intelligence Unit’s map of the technologies and trends shaping the next 50 years.
Analysis by the 311 Strategic Intelligence Unit, from Matthew Griffin’s article and 311 data. First published on Fanatical Futurist.
FAQ
Why does this matter?
Technology decentralises products and services, and now it's decentralising all manner of jobs that previously could only be done if people were physically present.
About the author
Matthew Griffin Founder, President and Futurist, 311 Institute
Matthew Griffin is a multi-award winning Futurist and expert in Disruption and Innovation, Geopolitics, Leadership, and Technology, who NASA have described as a "walking encyclopaedia of the future" and a "futurist Polymath."
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Matthew Griffin is a multi-award winning Futurist and expert in Disruption and Innovation, Geopolitics, Leadership, and Technology, who NASA have described as a "walking encyclopaedia of the future" and a "futurist Polymath." 17-time best selling author of the "Codex of the Future" series, Matthew is the Founder, President and Futurist of the 311 Institute, a global Futures and Deep Futures advisory firm working with royal households, world leaders, G7, G20, and G77 governments, NGOs, and multi-national mid and mega cap firms to help them explore, shape, and lead the next 50 years of business and society.
An award-winning YouTube creator with over a million followers, with an unrivalled global reach and impact, Matthew is a highly sought-after international keynote speaker, lecturer, and mentor who collaborates with global leaders through the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC) and United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) to shape pivotal initiatives such as the UN’s AI for Humanity programme, the United Nations Conference of the Parties (UN COP), and the World Economic Forum in Davos.
As the former Global Head of Cloud, National Security, and Enterprise Sales for companies including Atos, Dell-EMC, and IBM, Matthew has a proven track record of building multi-billion dollar business units and turning failing divisions into market leaders. His ability to identify, analyse, and communicate the implications of hundreds of emerging technologies and trends is unparalleled, and his insights are trusted by many of the world’s most respected organisations, including ABB, Accenture, Adidas, AON, ARM, BCG, Centrica, Citi, Coca-Cola, Dentons, Deloitte, Dow Jones, EY, Google, KPMG, Lego, Legal & General, LinkedIn, Microsoft, PepsiCo, Qualcomm, RWE, Samsung, Siemens AG and Siemens Energy, T-Mobile, UBS, VISA, Walmart, Workday, Worldpay and many others.
Regularly featured in the global media including the AP, BBC, Bloomberg, CNBC, Discovery, Forbes, Khaleej Times, Telegraph, TIME, ViacomCBS, WIRED, and the WSJ, Matthews mission is to help organisations create a fair and sustainable future whose benefits are shared by everyone irrespective of their ability, background, or circumstances.
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Sources and further reading
- T-Mobile Brand Voice forbes.com
- In a 5g future physical work wont require your physical presence forbes.com
Source: first published by the 311 Institute on 26 November 2021. Cite as: Griffin, M. (2021). Featured Futurist: In A 5G Future Physical Work Won’t Require Your Physical Presence, Forbes. 311 Institute. https://www.311institute.com/featured-futurist-in-a-5g-future-physical-work-wont-require-your-physical-presence-forbes/
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