Arun Sundararajan

The impact of digital technologies

An expert in the economic and social impact of digital technologies, this top speaker and sharing economy guru has received numerous international awards for his academic work.

A professor at New York University and award-winning researcher, who takes a fresh look at encounters on the market. We’ve entered the "sharing economy" era – marking an end to employment as we know it and the rise of what economist Arun Sundararajan calls crowd-based capitalism. As the world shifts from traditional organizations to digitally enabled markets and communities, he is helping corporations and governments prepare for and thrive through the transformation.

The Digital Future of Work

Two significant forces will radically reshape the US workplace over the next twenty years: first, an ongoing shift from full-time employment towards freelance, "gig economy" and platform-based work, and second, an acceleration in the pace of automation of human labor, driven by robotics technology and artificial intelligence. Recent politics in the U.S. and the U.K. highlight the deep connection between changes in work and changes in the social fabric.

Arun Sundararajan connects the vague press projections about the distant future with ongoing developments in digital intermediation and on-demand labor that can help you plan your workforce strategy for the immediate future. His cutting-edge thinking separates the hype from reality, and provides an informed picture about the future of work, the societal implications of the impending transformation, and the pace at which it might occur. His framework will enable you to understand what to expect in your industry, and the actionable strategies you can use to thrive in tomorrow’s digital workplace.


The Shifting Landscape of Trust

Trust is the foundation of the economy and society, and an understanding of trust allows one to understand the present and future of business. Arun Sundararajan, one of the world’s leading scholars on the economics of digital trust, explains how human history can be delineated by "phases of trust," each of which has resulted in a radical shift in the world’s economy. Drawing on his research into reputation systems, institutions, automation and social networks, Sundararajan will demonstrate that we are now entering the "fifth phase," which will include: a new melding of the individual and the institution implications for risk management, regulation and the connectedness of human society an evolution in trust as we move into a commercial world of autonomous vehicles and everyday robots.

Capitalizing on the Sharing Economy and Rise of Crowd-Based Capitalism

In the 18th century economy of Adam Smith, most business was conducted between individuals; the one-person shop and the small business were the heart of the economy. Over the next two centuries, we witnessed the emergence of the organizational economy, with most economic activity conducted in large cohesive companies with managerial hierarchies and full-time employees. This economy still dominates the U.S. and Western Europe today – but the tides are changing. We are now entering a third phase, transitioning from 20th century managerial capitalism to 21st century crowd-based capitalism. Platforms like Uber, Airbnb, Didi Kuaidi, Etsy and Handy – what we collectively call "the sharing economy" – are early examples of a future in which peer-to-peer exchange is increasingly prevalent and the crowd replaces the corporation at the center of capitalist enterprise. Arun Sundararajan makes sense of the massive venture capital investments being made in the sharing economy, explaining the convergence of digital and socioeconomic forces that have catalyzed the transition. He outlines how business models will change in industries ranging from real estate and transportation to energy and healthcare, and what companies need to do thrive in this new economy. He also discusses how this shift to crowd-based capitalism alters what drives economic growth, the nature of regulation, the sources of commercial trust and risk, what it means to have a job, and how connected we are to each other.

"Information technology is disrupting a host of industries including transportation, hotels, banks, and marketplaces. The very nature of work is changing. Sundararajan offers an insightful guide to the forces shaping our economy today—and tomorrow."
—Hal Varian, Chief Economist, Google