What do these three very different technologies all have in common – generative AI, 6G mobile networks, and autonomous vehicles? Clearly they are all exciting, but they also all rely on the science – and the magic – of advanced processors. GPUs (Graphics Processing Units) are a member of this family; a family which boasts sophisticated architectures and exceptional miniaturization, enabling high performance for massive data processing while balancing size, speed, and energy efficiency. But are we in danger of taking this incredible technology for granted?

The journey of GPUs from the 1990s to today is a tale of innovation and competition. Initially designed to enhance gaming 3D graphics, GPUs have transcended their original purpose. Thanks to their powerful parallel processing abilities, they now play a pivotal role in artificial intelligence and deep learning. Today, GPUs have transformed from specialized gaming hardware to indispensable tools that enable cutting-edge technology and underpin critical day-to-day services.

Europe’s position and challenges

Despite the critical role of GPUs, Europe finds itself behind in the manufacture of these essential processors.

High costs of cutting-edge semiconductor manufacturing technology limit GPU production to just three global players, and Intel is the only one considering production in Europe by the end of the decade. However, the design of GPUs is as crucial as their production and offers a way for Europe to regain some sovereignty in the market. Once the design of a processor (its system architecture and key intellectual property blocks) is mastered, it is technically possible to have it produced anywhere. In terms of sovereignty, this offers freedom. That’s why Europe must design its own advanced processors, even if it must depend – and it has no choice in the short term – on non-European manufacturers.

Recognizing this, global tech giants and countries around the world are investing heavily to quickly design alternatives and take back control. Yet Europe is not currently part of this effort and until it enters the fray, the gap with the rest of the world will continue to widen.

Envisioning a European GPU

Designing a European GPU is therefore a strategic necessity. The European industrial fabric (health, defense, aeronautics, automotive, telecoms, data centers) cannot depend on a single source of supply – especially one outside the region. But it is a challenge that requires significant investment estimated at several billion euros over several years. This is not just to catch up, but to ensure a diverse supply chain for critical technology.

The focus of this investment is not only on creating a GPU, but on developing a complete advanced processor with a heterogeneous architecture combining different functionalities for efficiency (though the modular ‘chiplet’ approach also offers interesting possibilities). Progress has already started across Europe. France, Germany and the Nordics have already taken steps towards this goal, benefiting from collaborations with global tech firms like Thales, and smaller specialists such as Kalray, SiPearl, VSora, GreenYellow, Menta, Scalinx, GrAI Matter Labs, and many other leading lights in the world of CPU and accelerator technologies. Capgemini, following the acquisitions of Altran and HDL, is now Europe’s leading silicon engineering services company and can drive this project forward. Leading forces across the continent have never been brought together for a common sector project like this. Combined, they give Europe the foundational elements that, if properly assembled, could constitute the embryo of a sovereign advanced processor, potentially rivalling non-European tech giants in the long term.

A unified industrial vision

The realization of a European GPU hinges on aligning European stakeholders around a common industrial vision. This involves a coordinated effort to define a unique architecture, development roadmap, software environment and ecosystem, and market strategy, supported by both the state and private sector investment.

A rapid task force could kickstart this initiative, outlining a political and industrial framework within three months. This would catalyse collaboration among industrial clients and technology providers, addressing Europe’s pressing needs for digital sovereignty and technological independence.

In summary, developing a European GPU is not merely a technological endeavor but a strategic move towards securing Europe’s position in the global tech landscape, paving the way for technological sovereignty and innovation. This will ensure Europe can continue to enjoy the current and next wave of exceptional technologies that have the ability to change the world in which we live and work.

“Good companies manage Engineering. Great companies manage Product”.

– Thomas Schranz

Semiconductors are the backbone of modern technology, playing a pivotal role in virtually every aspect of our daily lives. These tiny electronic components – which manage the flow of electric current in a device – can be found in everything from smartphones and LED bulbs, to cars, kitchen white goods and medical devices.

Looking ahead, the importance of semiconductors is only expected to grow as society becomes increasingly reliant on digital technologies. The rise of the Internet of Things (IoT), autonomous vehicles, artificial intelligence (AI), and 5G networks all require sophisticated semiconductor technology. These advancements require faster, more energy-efficient, and smaller semiconductors to accommodate the ever expanding demands of a digitally connected world.

As such – semiconductor manufacturers must produce more efficiently, meeting the ever increasing need for ‘smaller, faster, cheaper’, whilst maintaining margins, and dealing with fluctuations of demand and uncertainty of supply. Because of this, it’s increasingly evident that these companies need to better manage the requirements of the semiconductor chip product lifecycle – eg. the mix of chip complexity and the need for specialized ‘mission-specific’ chips, regulatory constraints, and various other challenges. This will allow companies to gain R&D, operational and margin efficiency, and decrease their time to market – largely by enabling digital continuity across their systems.

Below we outline major trends affecting the semiconductor industry which, due to the impact of semiconductors, also have broader global significance.

Semiconductor industry trends

• The growing importance of ecosystem partnering and selling across vertical industries: Proof of functionality and new next-gen technology, for example, AI, Metaverse, 5G, and Edge, are driving partnerships across the semiconductor ecosystem to address end markets with complete end-market platforms.
• 5G is accelerating the pace and possibilities of connectivity – and the use cases it enables: Next-gen connectivity is evolving, from wired and wireless networks to private 5G, which is revolutionizing use cases across a wide range of industries.
• Verticals are bringing chip design in-house: Semiconductor manufacturers are losing share to a growing number of product/system companies, which are designing chips in-house for use in their own products/services – allowing them to disrupt, differentiate and control the supply chain.
• The steady shift towards ‘Industry 4.0’ and fully automated manufacturing – Digitization is creating an array of challenges (and opportunities) related to collecting, managing, processing, analyzing, visualizing, and effectively utilizing data – a microchip-hungry endeavor.
• Increased product innovation and reimagined customer experiences – An increased focus on co-innovation and co-design with the goal of establishing digital continuity and a single source of truth (SSoT) for all product data. The intent is to accelerate product innovation and consequentially delight customers.
• The value of Moore’s Law diminishing: Semiconductor manufacturers competing on performance, power, and area (PPA) seek creative ways to achieve a competitive advantage, while others add value by producing customizable modular chips called ‘chiplets’ that can be combined to form a complete system-on-chip (SoC).

Why is digital continuity important to the semiconductor industry?

‘Digital continuity’ is an organization’s ability to maintain (and put to use) important information, despite ongoing changes to the organization’s ways of storing data, and relentless evolutions in digital technology. This allows an organization to connect the ‘digital threads’ (information flows) of this data across its systems. Through this intelligent information sharing and monitoring, digital continuity helps the company and its ecosystem to operate more efficiently.   

The ability to manage information will be a competitive differentiator. Success for companies that produce these chips will depend upon these companies achieving a faster time to market with a ‘first time right’ approach. Geopolitical changes and challenges (eg. certain countries ‘reshoring’ the production of core semiconductors for national security purposes) will continue to force the localization of production, and these new greenfield plants will only be able to meet the required pace with the right PLM backbone and digital continuity foundations.

The previous approach to development, ie. using custom homegrown disconnected systems, results in misaligned technical investments and technical debt – namely the accumulated cost of shortcuts taken during software development, creating increased complexity and maintenance efforts over time.

The traditional document-centric development approach often does not allow traceability between requirements, product design, or the front and back-end manufacturing of products. This loss of traceability creates additional costs, quality control issues, compliance risks and sustainability overheads for enterprises.

As such, there is a clear need for an industrialized PLM backbone that provide a single source of truth (SSoT), offering consistency, accuracy, and reliability in the use of data and information across all departments and processes. In addition, rapid integration into end-user product ecosystems (which is required to meet the competitive pace of business today) requires the use of simulation and model-based approaches.

What features would such a PLM backbone require?

• A complex hierarchical data model: Allowing oversight of variables like chip order part numbers and customer part numbers. It could also manage complex chip design, development & verification and tapeout, as well as finalize die designs. Other capabilities would include register-transfer layer (RTL) design, GDSII data management, mask set management, along with control over reticles & die variants, wafer fabrication & sort – and, ultimately, the chip assembly process to the final product.
  
  • This data model would also address product complexity and technology development needs for the data models that are used by downstream systems to design and manufacture products. These include engineering bills of materials (EBOM), manufacturing bills of materials (MBOM), and production bills of materials (PBOM).
• Management of new product introduction (NPI) programs and product portfolios: Meeting the need for new markets, changing consumer demand and emerging technologies.
• Integrated fabless and foundry management: Once designs are ready to hand over to approved foundries or to outsourced semiconductor assembly and test (OSAT).
• IP management: Providing integrated IP reuse that is controlled and secured. Transparent IP management increases efficiency in R&D, operations, and margin efficiency – whilst avoiding the risk of IP infringement.
• Product sustainability and environmental compliance: Offering integrated material substance declarations and compliance checks for Integrated Device Manufacturer and Original Design Manufacturer compliance management. Ultimately, this can help to increase the effectiveness of semiconductor equipment, moving us towards the future of sustainability compliance in the factory.   

With all the above, the semiconductor industry is looking to build integrated close-loop quality system tracking into its design and manufacturing processes.

An opportunity, for those with the means to seize it

Once the hard work has been done to establish digital continuity across an organization’s many systems, companies can expect increased efficiency in R&D, operations and margins, decreased time to market and, of course, a significant competitive advantage.

Semiconductor manufacturers today have a major opportunity to support the next generation of technology, but will only be able to properly exploit it with the kind of digital continuity that sophisticated PLM provides.

Capgemini’s world class team of semiconductor industry experts is ready to help you build a next-gen secure, intelligent PLM backbone for your semiconductor business.

Our VLSI practice experts be an integral part of your team, working closely with your business product managers and fab leadership team. We also offer pre-configured semiconductor solutions and accelerators for PLM, MES, and ERP triptych products – to help you bring everything together.

Ready to progress, or want to learn more? Meet our experts.

Commercial buildings have a dark secret; they are among the planet’s worst climate offenders. Heating, cooling and powering data centres, office blocks and manufacturing plants consumes huge amounts of energy and currently accounts for 30% of all energy consumption, and for 26% of energy-related emissions.

Consider, for example a data centre. A single data centre’s electricity usage is equivalent to that of approximately 50,000 households. This means that the combined power consumption of all data centres globally is around 200 terawatt hours (TWh) of energy annually, which is more than many individual countries need.[1] By 2025, global data production is expected to reach 181 zettabytes – much higher than the 15.5 zettabytes recorded ten years before, which means more processing will be needed, increasing data centre demands on electricity even more.

Older buildings contribute significantly to the global environmental impact too. In 2009, one of the world’s most iconic structures, The Empire State Building in New York, underwent a makeover to improve its energy efficiency. Windows were refurbished, insulation was improved, and the building’s HVAC system was upgraded. These changes led to a significant reduction in energy consumption by 38% and annual energy cost savings of $4.4 million. This retrofit has been widely cited as a landmark example of how energy efficiency measures can be implemented in older buildings to achieve substantial energy savings and environmental benefits.

The figures associated with inefficient buildings are only expected to grow given landlords now have a reduced incentive to undertake green refurbishments as a result of post-pandemic uncertainty around the level of future demand for commercial property.

This presents a significant sustainability problem that could jeopardise companies’ reputations; reduce their ability to attract and retain talent; and affect their chances of successfully securing new contracts, particularly in the public sector where environmental credentials have become a fundamental part of selection criteria.

But this sustainability issue also represents a more direct financial problem, because energy costs money. As environmental regulations become more demanding, and as the number of digital technologies deployed in modern facilities proliferates, optimising building energy consumption is not just a choice, but a necessity.

The need for digital…

Uncontrolled and unplanned energy consumption sits at the heart of the business energy challenge.

Ineffective management of the incredibly complex energy environment results in wastage and therefore cost when it comes to buildings and facilities. This is exacerbated when companies use outdated and siloed systems that restrict data-driven decisions and oblige them to respond to issues after they occur rather than preventing them in the first place. They need to take a different approach.

For example, companies often find it hard to improve the energy efficiency of their infrastructure because they don’t know about their existing inefficient processes, and they don’t fully understand the amount of energy that is needed for the day-to-day running of their facilities – often referred to as their ‘energy baseline’. Knowing the consumption patterns and usage trends, helps them make better decisions when it comes to forecasting and planning budgets. It also helps them to calculate how much energy can be saved if they make changes.

The question is how can organisations accurately measure their energy baseline, implement better processes, and work towards becoming energy-efficient?

Digitisation and automation are key elements of any intelligent enterprise-wide solution to address all three. The smart use of technology helps organisations to collect precise data on energy usage and gain valuable insights from equipment data, resulting in significant cuts in operational expenses. This is why digital solutions are so critical to addressing this problem. Digital tools make it simple to monitor, understand, and manage energy production, distribution and consumption related to buildings and facilities. They make optimising energy supply and demand far simpler than it is today. What’s more, the implementation of condition- and prescription-based maintenance based on the energy data digital tools provide can decrease downtime, improve utilisation, and cut maintenance costs.

Thus, the switch to managing the supply and demand of energy for buildings and facilities through digital tools will have a massive impact for businesses. Research tells us that ‘Demand-side optimisation’ (such as digitisation) can reduce emissions by 25%; electrifying processes can reduce emissions by 30%; and decarbonising energy supplies can reduce emissions by 45%. Together these measures, all enabled by smarter digital tools, can have a tangible impact on closing the net-zero gap by 2050.

… and the destination

So what organizations need is a platform for state-of-the-art monitoring and control of the energy of buildings and facilities by harnessing the power of Internet of Things (IOT) and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies. They need an approach that optimises energy efficiency, and that is scalable both operationally as well as geographically.

Capgemini’s Energy Command Center is designed to meet these needs. It provides precise information about energy consumption and carbon emission via power and energy monitoring and uses smart technology for real time monitoring and control of energy-intensive utility equipment.

It’s the aggregation, collation, and interpretation of data that is key. With the Energy Command Center, this data supports decision-making for resource optimization and decarbonization. Artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms facilitate the control of building operations and assets remotely and ensure that expert advice is available at remote locations, thereby reducing downtime.

In addition, our approach complies with sustainability reporting requirements and enables organizations to demonstrate their commitment to environmental responsibility.

In the second and final article in this short series, we’ll take a closer look at the Energy Command Center concept, and at the results that might be expected.

[1]The Staggering Ecological Impacts of Computation and the Cloud, The MIT Press Reader, February 2022

Sixteen percent of the world’s population are people with disabilities; 80% of them are of working age. These numbers indicate a compelling need to ensure workplaces offer equal opportunities for all to pursue successful careers.    

At Capgemini, our colleagues with disabilities and neurodiverse individuals aren’t defined by their limitations but by their capabilities. As a global organization, it’s our priority to ensure all our colleagues are enabled to excel at work, bringing the best of their creativity and innovation to the workplace. This doesn’t apply to people with disabilities alone but to each one of our colleagues, providing everyone with a more comfortable and inclusive work environment that prioritizes well-being.  

Creating an accessible workplace is complex and multidimensional.   

Our commitment to building an accessible workplace – providing tools, support, and flexibility for our colleagues with disabilities – comes from the top. We were an early adopter of the Valuable 500, and our CEO, Aiman Ezzat, recently signed the International Labour Organization (ILO) pledge, furthering our commitment to disability-inclusive sustainability practices.   

Operationally, we are driving change by working collaboratively with key internal stakeholders who are embedding accessibility principles and processes into core functions. Our actions include building accessible apps through our Group IT function, making office spaces fit for purpose through the Corporate Real Estate and Facilities team, and our work to ensure accessibility throughout an employee’s journey from recruitment to daily communications and our L&D programs.     

Our award-winning global employee network group, CapAbility, focuses on providing practical support and a platform for networking and advocacy. CapAbility includes a sub-charter, NeuroAbility, that focuses on our neurodiverse colleagues. They are both pivotal in ensuring the culture change needed for success.  

Three key ways to make our workplaces more accessible for all:  

• Ensuring accessibility of workspaces
• Enhancing digital tools for accessibility
• Accessibility throughout the employee journey

1. Ensuring accessibility of workspaces: With our offices in over 50 countries, our Group Facilities team works on multiple fronts to enable independent access for all, making spaces accessible and customizing them based on local needs.  

We aim to nurture an environment that improves productivity, concentration, and employee well-being across our offices with provisions for quiet zones and well-being spaces, including maternity rooms for nursing mothers. In Sydney and Melbourne, for instance, our offices include multi-faith well-being rooms, while in Belgium, employees have access to a “people room,” a dedicated space that serves as a quiet zone and well-being space for employees, accommodating their different needs.  

Across Capgemini offices worldwide, we have installed a range of facilities and features both in indoor and outdoor spaces to fit the specific needs of our colleagues with disabilities.  

A few examples of how we’re ensuring accessibility in our offices include:  

We’ve recently conducted a pilot in collaboration with CapAbility and an external provider led by experts with lived user experiences, for an assessment of our office spaces, benchmarking ourselves against global standards of accessibility in key sites worldwide, which will then be rolled out globally.   

2. Enhancing digital tools for accessibility: Our IT team ensures that compliance with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), the global standard for accessibility, is central to our user experience and service design. This includes creating a corporate design system with libraries of WCAG-compliant components that are reused across all Capgemini websites and applications.  

In addition to aligning with standards like WCAG, we use research to ensure our applications are truly accessible and user-friendly for everyone. 

Currently, the IT team is working on a three-point plan to ensure our internal applications comply with WCAG 2.1 Level AA. This plan includes:  

Work is also underway to improve the accessibility of our external corporate website.   

Our remediation plan addresses blockers for users to complete key activities, enhancing keyboard accessibility, color contrast issues, and screen reader functionality.  

3. Accessibility throughout the employee journey: We believe in enabling all talent to grow their careers right from the time they apply for a role at Capgemini.   

• Recruiting the best talent: We train our talent acquisition team to ensure diversity in profiles and make sure candidates are selected based on their skills and experiences. We also utilize leading technology solutions where needed in our interview process. Currently, we’re working with the talent acquisition team to update our recruitment application processes, enabling candidates to mention their disability and if they require any specific assistance. For instance, in Brazil, candidates with disabilities are provided with sign language assistance whenever needed. In 2023, we renewed a social agreement with our social partners on the representation of people with disabilities in our workforce in France, setting our ambition to reach 6% by 2026.
  
  
• Making training accessible: To make learning effective, engaging, and seamless, we have made mandatory training accessible and built accessible learning by design, for example, by introducing automated subtitles on our learning platforms.    

• Improving accessibility of communications: We provide guidance for effective communication as an essential step to ensuring collaboration and engagement for all colleagues regardless of ability. We encourage the use of features like live captioning and transcripts, which, apart from helping our colleagues with disabilities, are also useful to people who aren’t fluent in English, ensuring they feel a sense of belonging as well.   
    
  Our visual identity guidelines address accessibility issues such as the appropriate use of colors, gradients, and typography. We have a toolkit on accessible communications to ensure legibility and universal accessibility.   

Accessibility and inclusive design principles extend beyond our own operations.   

The way we apply accessibility and inclusive design principles to our workplace is also equally relevant to our clients’ work, and the social impact we create. The ILO pledge, signed by our CEO, Aiman Ezzat, commits us to accessible products for our clients and partners.  While we work with internal client-facing teams to ensure compliance, we’re already seeing some positive changes.   

With the implementation of the European Accessibility Act, frog – part of Capgemini Invent – is working toward the goal of making all the products they deliver align with accessibility guidelines. They recently worked on an e-commerce site that complies with the essential requirements. Cards of Humanity is another example designed by frog as a practical tool for inclusive design that involves gamification of the concept, enabling us to anticipate the needs of the diverse future user and adapt to ensure our product is more inclusive.   

For social impact, our partnership with Youth4Jobs in India includes a dedicated IT training program for youth with disabilities, providing them with tech skills and securing jobs for them.  Capgemini provides both technical and soft skill support to the trainers and candidates. This training includes web development, coding, SQL, and microservices, resulting in full-stack development, and at the end of each training, every successful participant is awarded a certificate of completion by both Capgemini and Youth4Jobs.  

Global benchmarking ensures our continual progression as an accessible and inclusive employer.   

It’s a complex journey ahead, but we’re on our way towards achieving our ambition of building a workplace that is fully accessible. We’re constantly benchmarking ourselves against stringent global standards. Capgemini was recognized as one of the “Best Places to Work for Disability Inclusion™” in 2024, with our teams in Brazil, the US, and India achieving top scores in the Disability Equality Index, a platform that benchmarks corporate disability inclusion policies and programs globally. This year, we also received the Zero Project award for our neuroinclusion program, empowering and integrating neurodivergent talent into the workplace, and the MAPFRE Inclusión Responsable Award 2024, recognizing our efforts to build an inclusive, supportive workplace for people with disabilities.  

Together, let’s continue to improve accessibility in all aspects of our workplace, shaping inclusive futures for all.  

In a world where career paths are often unpredictable, public employment services stand as a critical support system. Originally built for simpler times, welfare systems across Europe, North America, and beyond now contend with a diverse, dynamic workforce that requires more than just a job listing. Today’s employment landscape is punctuated by sudden shifts—layoffs, career changes, and the evolving challenges of remote learning and gig work. Digital platforms, designed to accommodate real-life transitions, are transforming public employment services, offering seamless, personalized pathways from welfare dependence to meaningful, sustainable employment.

To understand this transformation, it’s important to clarify the role of platforms in the field of government technology (GovTech). Modern, citizen-centric platforms leverage advanced data analytics, digital identities, and secure data-sharing to provide services at scale that feel personalized and seamless. However, these platforms are not simple plug-and-play products; they are purpose-built around specific use cases, utilizing a tailored range of digital tools. This approach enables agencies to anticipate and respond to individual needs, moving beyond a rigid, one-size-fits-all model.

Throughout the following, we meet several individuals who, at pivotal points in their lives, have benefited from these platforms. Their journeys illustrate how these systems are increasingly capable of addressing the real-life transitions we all face at various stages, making the daunting task of rebuilding or redirecting a career both manageable and fulfilling.

Navigating the employment landscape in uncertain times

Meet Lisa, a recent finance graduate in Singapore. For her, graduation meant facing a series of difficult, unexpected questions: What next? How do you start a career when your true passion lies outside your degree? Lisa’s situation, like many graduates today, demanded guidance in translating her background in finance into something that truly inspired her—tech. For her, Singapore’s MyCareersFuture platform became an essential tool. She built her profile, detailing her skills, experience, and aspirations, and received AI-driven job recommendations tailored to help her navigate this pivot. Instead of scrolling through endless roles, Lisa saw only the relevant positions, with MyCareersFuture even suggesting skill-development programs to help bridge the gap from finance to tech.
Just as Lisa’s journey showed her that technology could simplify what once seemed overwhelming, Ismail, a young graduate from London, found himself standing at a crossroads of his own. As the son of a second-generation immigrant family, Ismail felt pressure to secure a “practical” career, but he had yet to find a path that resonated with his true interests. Turning to the UK’s National Careers Service, Ismail started with a series of online career assessments that revealed a hidden passion for environmental science. Through the service’s career matching and skills resources, he saw options he hadn’t considered before. With his results in hand, Ismail connected with employers in his new field and discovered training pathways he could pursue.
Amara, a factory worker from a rural town in France, faced a different type of career transition. Having worked in manufacturing for over a decade, Amara was suddenly confronted with the reality of automation encroaching on her role. But Amara’s years of experience were valuable, and she knew she had a knack for troubleshooting and process improvement. What she needed was a way to pivot these skills into a more secure, future-proof career. That’s where Europass, an initiative by the European Commission, played a crucial role. Amara used Europass to assess her current skills and discover which fields were in high demand. Based on her profile, Europass suggested online courses in data analysis and project management—both areas that could help her make a smooth transition into a resilient career. For Amara, this wasn’t just about upskilling; it was about adapting her experience to meet the demands of an evolving economy, a journey of resilience and reinvention.
For others, access to job opportunities isn’t just a question of career alignment or skills; it’s a matter of resources. Raj, from a remote Indian village, had long aspired to become a software developer but was faced with limited educational resources and virtually no access to relevant training. Yet Raj’s ambition remained steadfast. When he discovered Skill India, a platform that provided remote learning opportunities, online labs, and certifications, it felt like the first step toward realizing his goals. With nothing more than an internet connection, Raj could take classes, participate in labs, and earn certifications, all of which enabled him to start building a professional profile. For Raj, Skill India didn’t just bridge a digital divide; it turned a dream into an achievable goal, making him a part of a national vision that taps into the potential of rural talent.
But career transitions don’t always occur in times of clarity or optimism. For Sarah, an unemployed single mother in the United States, the transition was abrupt and stressful. Laid off from her administrative job, she was suddenly faced with the dual pressures of finding work and supporting her family. Sarah relied on unemployment benefits to make ends meet, but the process was marred by delays. The Unemployment Insurance Modernization initiative transformed her experience, using tech to streamline claims processing. No longer bogged down by long waits and repetitive paperwork, Sarah found that the platform not only reduced delays but also allowed her to focus on rebuilding her career. During a period that felt otherwise destabilizing, the system’s efficiency provided a sense of stability, enabling her to begin looking forward once again.

Key features of platform-driven employment systems

In each of these stories, we see common threads that make digital platforms effective in addressing real-life transitions:

1. Integration of multiple services: Platforms like MijnOverheid in the Netherlands consolidate job matching, skills assessment, training, and benefits in a unified digital space. This integration streamlines access, enabling users like Lisa, Ismail, and Amara to navigate career resources without duplicating their personal information across departments. This “one-stop-shop” approach exemplifies the level of accessibility and interoperability needed in today’s complex job market.
2. Data-driven personalization: By leveraging user profiles and analytics, platforms such as WorkNet in South Korea provide recommendations tailored to individual journeys. This personalized support helps users like Raj and Sarah make informed decisions based on real-time data, offering guidance that feels intuitive and tailored to their unique situations.
3. Secure data sharing: Estonia’s e-Residency program exemplifies how secure data-sharing protocols protect user privacy while fostering collaboration across departments. With a secure digital identity, users can engage with multiple services confidently, knowing their information is safe and accessible across platforms, a vital feature in today’s interconnected world.

Designing for real-life transitions

These stories underscore the importance of user-centered design in today’s digital employment platforms. For job seekers like Amara, intuitive design enables seamless skill-building and career transitioning. For individuals in high-stress situations, such as Sarah, streamlined processes reduce friction and anxiety. Designing with empathy means understanding that each user’s experience will differ, and that accessibility, efficiency, and clarity are essential for platforms intended to support individuals through uncertain transitions.

Conclusion: Building a platform-centric future for employment services

The transformation of employment services through digital platforms marks a major shift in how we address career transitions and labor market dynamics. By integrating services, utilizing data, and focusing on user experience, these platforms provide a robust foundation for supporting job seekers at every stage of their journey.

However, realizing this vision requires more than just advanced technology. Governments, tech innovators, and civil society must work together to build employment systems that are rooted in accessibility, equity, and long-term impact. With the right investments and a commitment to inclusivity, these platform-driven systems can reshape labor markets and support resilient, adaptable careers for people from all walks of life. For Lisa, Ismail, Amara, Raj, and Sarah, and countless others facing life’s career transitions, digital employment platforms within the GovTech ecosystem offer not just a job, but a pathway to stability and fulfilment in an unpredictable world.