Gartner, the leading research and advisory firm, has recently shared its top 10 technology trends for 2018 (find 2017’s trends here). Let’s take a look:
Most Important Strategic Technology Trends For 2018
Want to read more about these disruptive technologies in detail? Read ahead —
1. AI Foundations
According to a Gartner survey, about 59% of organizations are still in their initial stages of gathering information to build their AI strategies. It’s expected that through 2018, AI will be increasingly used to enhance decision making, improve customer experience, and reinvent business models.
2. Intelligent Apps and Analytics
It’s expected that over the next few years, every application and service will be incorporating AI at some level. It’s predicted that by 2018, every major smartphone will have a dedicated AI chip. It’ll become an inseparable part of our lives and we won’t even notice it. Intelligent apps will create a new intelligent layer between people and systems for transforming the work and workplace structure. Augmented analytics will also become an important part of businesses.
3. Intelligent Things
The combination of AI and machine learning will help intelligent things to interact in a more cohesive way with us and our surroundings. Devices like Amazon Echo and Google Home are changing our living rooms. As a result, multiple smart devices will work either independently or with human input.
4. Digital Twins
For those who don’t know, a digital twin is a digital representation of a real-world entity or system. While it’s one of the most important technology trends for 2018, by 2020, it’s expected that about 21 billion connected sensors will result in the existence in billions. With this shift to an integrated digital world, marketers, healthcare professionals, and planners will get the benefit.
5. Cloud to the Edge
Edge computing is a topology in which information source is closer to information processing and content collection and delivery. While it could be apparent that Cloud and Edge computing are competing in approach, the reality is a lot different. If implemented together, Cloud could be used to create a service-oriented model and Edge could offer a delivery style for execution of disconnected parts of a cloud service.
6. Conversational Platform
The conversational platforms have the power to process different user queries and complicated interactions. In near future, these platforms will evolve to process more complex actions. By working out the challenges like the structured way of communication of users, it could be made even better.
7. Immersive Experience
You don’t need an introduction to AR, VR, and MR technologies and how they are changing the way we interact with the digital world and they continue to find a prominent position in the chart of technology trends for 2018. Recently, Microsoft upped its MR games by partnering with many OEMs and released Windows 10 MR headsets. Apple and Google have brought AR apps to smartphones. Gartner predicts that in the next 5 years, the focus will be on MR, where a user maintains a presence in the physical world and interacts with objects in digital and real-world.
8. Blockchain
Blockchain is another disruptive technology that has taken the technology and business world by storm and things aren’t going to change in 2018. With a clear understanding of the opportunities and limitations of blockchain, an organization can make sure that its teams understand what is and isn’t possible. Also, it’s advisable to execute caution while dealing with blockchain and its applications as the legality of blockchain and bitcoin applications remains suspicious in many parts of the world, including India, China and Russia.
9. Event-Driven
Events are a critical part of any business as they reflect the notable states and changes in a business. With the advancements in AI and IoT, business events can be detected quickly and analyzed with more accuracy. It’s predicted that by 2020, such “event thinking” will be needed for 80% of digital business solutions.
10. Continuous Adaptive Risk and Trust
With the usage of more and more sophisticated tools, the organizations need to take care of threats more closely to combat threats like WannaCry ransomware. With Continuous Adaptive Risk and Trust (CARTA), the organizations can get their hands on real-time, risk, and trust-based decision making. In the digital world, organizations would need to integrate security into their DevOps to deliver a continuous “DevSecOps” process.
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