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While the rapid proliferation of the Industry 4.0 concept suggests that it brings about major economic change, the concept lacks a socio-economic foundation of change. In this context, the paper raises three questions: First, how sudden does the change brought about by Industry 4.0 occur, and, second, does it make a difference if it is conceived as sudden or not? Using a model of long waves of economic development and the concept of general purpose-technologies it is argued that much of the change brought about by Industry 4.0 is not of a sudden nature but largely represents the roll-out of the prevailing techno-economic paradigm, and that digitalization and artificial intelligence have the potential to trigger of a next long wave. The third question asks for possible implications of the long-wave perspective for adapting to an upcoming paradigm at the regional level. A major conclusion is that policy measures ought to reach beyond traditional innovation and technology-related policies and be implemented in the appropriate phase of a long wave. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]