NORTHEAST WISCONSIN (NBC 26) — Think back to ten years ago.
What could your cell phone do? In 2010, Steve Jobs unveiled FaceTime. That year, 'app' was chosen as the word of the year as Apple and Android pushed out software at rapid rates. Today, those features are commonplace. It shows us that technology is moving so fast, it's nearly impossible to predict what the world might look like ten years from now. Here in Northeast Wisconsin, that means countless opportunities and challenges for the area's biggest industries.
"What we're thinking about today and two, three years out continues to evolve at a pace like we've never seen," Schneider National Vice President of Strategy, Planning, and Architecture Brian Stuelpner said.
Ten years from now, Schneider could rely on technology like never before.
"Big investment areas revolve around automation or artificial intelligence," Stuelpner said.
It could drastically change the entire trucking model. The industry needs an estimated 900,000 drivers by 2027. But what if the trucks can drive themselves?
"I don't have a crystal ball on that one," Schneider Vice President of Solution Delivery Mike Degeneffe said. "I would say that that process is making trucks safer and easier to operate and that's what we care about."
In ten years, what will those trucks be carrying? Leaders of the paper industry hope it will be a lot paper.
"We really believe that the demand is going to increase for our products," Ahlstrom-Munksjö Head of Public Affairs Addie Teeters said.
Ahlstrom-Munksjö is one local company to see consumer demand as an opportunity.
"The war on plastic right now that we're seeing not only across the globe but just what consumers are demanding for sustainable solutions, that is really this beautiful new wave for the paper industry," Teeters said.
In the next ten years, that could mean big changes and new products for Northeast Wisconsin to make.
"Perhaps it means having boxed water instead of a plastic water bottle," Teeters said. "Perhaps it means having a sandwich wrapped in a paper based bag versus a plastic bag."
One of their biggest challenges of the next decade will be employment. Workers are retiring. Replacing an aging workforce is not a unique problem. The average age of an American farmer is 57.
"If you think about it in the next ten years, they're going to be ten years older," Larrand Dairy farmer Kelly Oudenhoven said.
Oudenhoven is one local farmer ready to rely more on technology to use less manual labor.
"We're looking at having tractors that can drive themselves," she said. "That's not too far off in the future."
Robotics and GPS technology have already made farming more efficient. Still, Wisconsin farms are closing at rapid rates. Experts said that in the next ten years, family farms may have to expand to survive.
"What we're seeing more and more are multi-generation farms," Extension Brown County's Liz Binversie said. "We're seeing the grandpa, dad, and son or daughter on the same farm."
There is some reason for farmers to be optimistic. The world's population is growing, and farmers will need to feed more people.
"We'll see what kind of crops and alternative enterprises become popular," Binversie said. "At this point, it's kind of anybody's guess."
It's a challenge Oudenhoven is ready to take on.
"I think you always have to look forward and build toward the next generation," she said.
That's the name of the game in health care as well.
"It's a very interesting time, lots of challenges in healthcare and lots of opportunities in healthcare that put is in a situation where we have to reinvent ourselves," Thedacare President and CEO Dr. Imran Andrabi said.
Dr. Andrabi and his team at Thedacare hope the next ten years puts them at the forefront of population health, a customized model of care he says can lower cost and improve well-being.
"What that requires is we make sure our mindset is different, our approach is different, that we understand the end goal of how we want to be able to take care of people," he said.
It's a commitment made one step at a time, in that industry and others. What the next ten years will bring, nobody really knows for sure. The last ten showed us that through tough times, Wisconsin can change, adapt, and build to 'Wisconsin 2030'.
