Ask the expert on… making digital technologies deliver productivity
- S4E6
- 29:43
- April 28th 2026
Why doesn’t digital technology always translate into productivity growth? What if the technology and your business model don’t quite fit?
Despite unprecedented advances in digital technologies, productivity growth has stalled, revealing a striking paradox: innovation is abundant, but its benefits are not. We discuss with Chander Velu why the issue lies not in the technologies themselves but in the failure to redesign how organisations create and capture value when adopting automation, digital fabrication, or quantum technologies.
Host Professor Bart van Ark is joined by:
- Chander Velu, Professor in Innovation and Economics, University of Cambridge
For more information on the topic:
- Stephen Roper, Chander Velu (2026) Adoption, implementation, alignment – maximising the performance benefits of digital investment, Productivity Insights Paper No. 084, The Productivity Institute.
- Silvia Massini, Mabel Sanchez-Barrioluengo, Xiaoxiao Yu, Myungun Kim, Philip Chen, Chander Velu (2025) Adoption of Advanced Digital Technologies and Platforms: Insights from a UK national survey, Working Paper No. 049, The Productivity Institute.
- Chander Velu (2026) The business of quantum technologies and the future of productivity.
- Productivity Puzzles podcast, Business model innovation and strategic productivity.
- Productivity Puzzles podcast, The Productivity Puzzle: Lessons Learned and What’s Next?.
About Productivity Puzzles:
Productivity Puzzles is brought to you by The Productivity Institute, a research body involving nine academic institutions across the UK, nine Productivity Forums throughout the nation, and a national independent Productivity Commission to advise policy makers at all levels of government. It is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council.
Productivity Puzzles
Join Bart van Ark, Professor of Productivity Studies at the University of Manchester, and the managing director of The Productivity Institute as he brings you discussions with leading minds from the UK and abroad about how to improve productivity for almost everything: from health care to car manufacturing, at national and regional levels, for business and for your own personal productivity.
This podcast series investigates why UK productivity is lower than in many other countries and why are there such large differences in productivity across and within the regions and devolved nations. We’ll also get the best insights from research on smart policies and effective business practices to increase productivity and find out how this will drive prosperity, wellbeing and inclusive sustainable growth.
Productivity Puzzles is brought to you by The Productivity Institute, a research project involving nine academic institutions across the UK, eight regional productivity forums throughout the nation, and a national independent Productivity Commission to advise policy makers at all levels of government.
Find out more about at www.productivity.ac.uk
The Productivity Institute is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council. To find out more, visit: https://esrc.ukri.org/about-us/strategy-and-priorities/productivity/