Thinking Ahead Blog
The next decade is approaching and, with the end of the year, several studies are emerging on which technology trends will have the greatest impact in 2020. One of the most important is Gartner's annual study, which predicts the technologies that will most change society and business in the following year. Find out Gartner's predictions for 2020 according to the "Top 10 Strategic Technology Trends for 2020".
These trends were analysed with a focus on "people-centric / smart spaces", in other words, how these technologies will affect people (e.g. consumers, employees) and the spaces they live in (e.g. home, office, car).
If in 2019 we began to come into contact with automation, in 2020 we will experience hyperautomation, that is, the application of several advanced technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) or Machine Learning (ML) to automate processes. For companies, this trend is an opportunity to understand how business functions, processes and indicators can interact with one another in order to be optimised.
In this trend, technology comes to be seen as a whole, with multiple touchpoints that people interact with. In other words, there is no longer a single point of interaction viewed in isolation, as we traditionally thought of the computer, for example. Instead, we will have multiple multisensory interfaces with many touchpoints, including wearable devices and advanced computer sensors.
For example, Domino's Pizza created a multiexperience involving ordering through an app and pizza delivery by autonomous cars, with location tracking and smart communications all along the way.
Today, the touchpoints most commonly used to create these multiexperiences include Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR) and multichannel interfaces involving humans and machines.
The democratisation of technology means that more people will have easy access to technical or business knowledge without needing extensive and expensive training. This trend relates to four main areas: application development, data & analytics, design and knowledge. In other words, knowledge becomes accessible to ordinary citizens, not just to scientists or professionals working in technology.
This democratisation will allow, for example, developers to generate data models without having the skills of a data scientist. Instead, they will rely on AI-driven development to generate code and on automation to carry out testing.
Human Augmentation is the use of technology to enhance a person's cognitive and physical experiences. There are already, for example, several companies in the automotive and mining industries that use wearables to improve the safety of their employees. On the cognitive side, this includes applications and technologies that help improve human learning, such as physical implants that deal with cognitive reasoning.
This trend is one of the most surrounded by cultural and ethical controversy. CRISPR technologies for genetic manipulation, for example, have significant ethical implications.
The evolution of technology has raised more and more questions about how consumer data is being collected and used. In addition, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) are increasingly making decisions that would previously have been made by humans, creating the need for some kind of oversight of these technologies.
This trend requires a focus on six key elements: ethics, integrity, openness, accountability, competence and consistency.
It also makes it necessary to create legislation, such as the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) in force in the European Union, that sets out some basic rules and promotes responsible development.
Edge Computing is a technology trend in which the collection, processing and distribution of information is placed closer to the sources of that information, with the aim of keeping traffic local and reducing latency. This involves all Internet of Things (IoT) devices. As a result, technologies are closer to people and the devices they use, and help build the foundations of smart spaces.
Distributed Cloud refers to the distribution of public cloud services to locations outside the provider's physical datacentres, while still being controlled by that provider. This takes us into a new era of Cloud Computing. With Distributed Cloud, data centres can be located anywhere. This solves technical challenges such as latency, as well as legal challenges such as data sovereignty. It also provides the benefits of a public cloud service together with the benefits of private and local cloud.
This trend includes all autonomous "things", such as drones, robots and equipment that use Artificial Intelligence (AI) to perform tasks normally done by humans. Although most of these technologies are currently only used in controlled spaces, such as a warehouse or a mine, they will eventually evolve and become available in public spaces.
Blockchain is a networked technology that allows transactional data to be recorded and shared in a chain between different entities. Information is stored in blocks, allowing it to be distributed and decentralised and preventing any single entity from owning it.
Although it is being used more and more, Blockchain remains immature in terms of enterprise deployment due to several technical challenges, including poor scalability and interoperability. Nevertheless, developments are beginning to emerge and more and more companies have started to integrate this technology into their processes, creating private and more traditional models.
In the future, when this trend reaches maturity, Blockchain is expected to revolutionise industries and eventually even the economy, as complementary technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT) begin to be integrated into Blockchain. This means that machines themselves will also interact with Blockchain and carry out transactions of money and other assets. For example, it will become possible for a car to negotiate prices directly with the insurance company, based on the data collected by its sensors.
According to Gartner, Blockchain, which is already being used in experimental and small-scale projects, will be fully scalable by 2023.
All the trends mentioned above carry immense potential for evolution and transformation in the business world. However, they also give rise to new security vulnerabilities. Artificial Intelligence (AI) will be the key to dealing with these new threats, above all by protecting AI systems themselves and by harnessing Machine Learning (ML) to improve security and understand patterns and attacks.
As well as the trends identified by Gartner, there are other technologies that will drive a range of changes over the coming year.
5G networks will be the next revolution in mobile communications. Compared with previous networks, 5G offers higher transmission speeds (100x faster than 4G) and therefore the perfect setting for IoT devices to connect with one another almost instantly and without any failure, including drones, autonomous cars and other devices that are part of smart cities.
On the negative side, the 5G network is associated with the emission of radiofrequency radiation, which may lead to harmful impacts on the environment, health problems, premature ageing, DNA damage, disruption of cell metabolism, etc. This is because the towers that emit 5G are more powerful and therefore have a greater impact in terms of the radiation they emit into the surrounding environment.
In 2019, several trials in public spaces involving autonomous cars began in Portugal, and these are expected to become increasingly frequent in the coming years. Although it is one of the fastest-developing trends, according to Gartner a legal framework is still needed that takes into account the ethical and social issues related to autonomous automation. Until that happens, many of the functions used in today's cars already include automation that makes driving more efficient and safer, such as automated braking, connection to other cars and to the original manufacturer, and the system's data collection and analytics capabilities.
One of the most eagerly awaited trends is innovation and sophistication in the medical field. 3D printing will bring a breakthrough in the prosthetics industry. Recently, for example, scientists at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York, together with the Yale School of Medicine, managed to produce living skin with blood vessels using 3D printing.
With 25 years of experience, Openlimits has been recognised for its ability to deliver ICT projects that increase companies' profitability and make managers' lives easier. Get in touch with us to prepare your company for the new decade, with technology specialists by your side who ensure the success and security of your business.
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