Economic and Social Challenges of Disruptive Technologies in Conditions of Industries 4.0 and 5.0: the EU Experience

Abstract

The paper analyses the economic and social challenges of disruptive technologies in conditions of Industry 4.0 and Industry 5.0. The paper overviews research progress on Industry 4.0 and 5.0 and their influence on sustainable development. The research explains disruptive technologies trends for sustainable development. The paper examines the development process of “disruptive technologies”, which are numerous: telephone (replaced the telegraph), steamboats (replaced the sailing vessels), semiconductors (replaced the vacuum equipment), e-mail (instead of traditional mail), etc. The paper analyzes basic disruptive technologies for creating the Internet of Things. The paper shows potential economic characteristics of disruptive technologies for the nearest five-year perspective. It investigates the EU experience on the realization of Industries 4.0 and 5.0. The paper highlights the trends that positively impact business growth up to 2022 according to the EU Future of Jobs Report: increasing adoption of new technology and big data; advances in mobile internet; advances in artificial intelligence and cloud technology; shifts in national economic growth; expansion of education; advances in new energy supplies and technologies. The research demonstrates how disruptive technologies will accelerate by 2025 and how both positive and negative impacts on business will grow up. The article tackles the issues of the potential economic and social impact of disruptive technologies in the nearest future. It distinguishes possible consequences of the implementation of key disruptive technologies of our time: for example excessive psychological impact; the risk of creative potential reduction; increasing information dependence; reduced the privacy of personal life; risks of uncontrolled reduction of information security (for example, due to hackers); increased information vulnerability of civilization; risk of loss of human control over cyber systems, etc. Key words: economic challenges, social challenges, Industry 4.0, Industry 5.0, disruptive technology.