Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility

Does Your Future of Work Include Wearing Wearables?

Perhaps you've heard the story of a troll young lady who calls herself a social media consultant caught between a punk and a hard place at a San Francisco bar with Google Glass on her face.

Perhaps you read Jody Padar's story on Glass and accounting firms.

Now we have a piece published on Deloitte's special corner of WSJ's CIO Journal (yes, such a thing exists) suggesting wearables are the future of work:

Media hype about wearable technology might make you think wearables are set to usurp smartphones and tablets as the next consumer technology innovation. But unlike smartphones and tablets, which consumers largely introduced to the enterprise, we expect businesses to take the lead in building acceptance and creating demand for wearable devices.

Skeptical that businesses will propel adoption of wearables? That’s understandable, especially given that few enterprises have tapped the full potential of smartphones and tablets. With many opportunities left to explore using conventional mobile devices, business leaders may wonder why they should consider investing in this next wave of tech gadgets.

Wearables’ value comes from introducing technology into previously prohibitive environments—where safety, logistics, or even etiquette have hampered or constrained adoption of traditional technology solutions. For example, installation, service, or maintenance professionals working in the field could access technical documentation or procedures via smart glasses, rather than having to stop their work to look up information on a laptop or access a smartphone if they’re in a confined space.

There is no specific mention of how accounting firms could use this technology to be more efficient, or more accurate, or more billable; whatever it is wearables are supposed to accomplish.

Somehow I can't see accounting firms jumping on wearables before the business world at large. Creep-factor aside. So don't expect to have your Glass doing your inventory counts for you any time soon…