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.