Issue Data, attention and now trust as successive intangible resources

Summary

EY traces a sequence of intangible resources that technology has made valuable over the past two decades, comparing it to earlier races for natural resources. First came data, which the IT revolution turned from scarce to abundant as digitisation generated it and the internet opened access to it. Companies won in that phase by producing, understanding and monetising data at scale. Next, in the social media era, attention became the key resource, and business models were built around engagement and shaping behaviour. EY argues that trust is the third resource in this line, and that the capabilities built for data will increasingly be needed for trust as well.