Economic growth is driven by the evolving interplay between innovation and automation: the former providing new products and services and the latter enabling cost-competitive and timely production and delivery. Information technology plays an increasingly central role in this process--a role that is only going to accelerate in the next decade as a result of advances in cloud and multicore computing. I discuss the challenges and opportunities inherent in a hyper-connected, hyper-automated world, with a particular emphasis on what they mean for the wonderful country of New Zealand.