Internet of X and 11 More Futuristic Trends That Drive The Future Today

Every year Future Today Institute publishes a report about latest technology trends, which will affect different sectors of the economy. In 2017 the number of innovations, mentioned in the forecast, was almost doubled if to compare to the previous year. Technologies evolve faster than ever and so that your business keeps pace with the times, you should pay attention to the latest technology trends. What innovations in IT sphere will be in demand in 2018 and how to apply the emerging technology trends for business development?

Artificial Intelligence

Stanford University’s Scientists believe that by 2030, cities will use Artificial Intelligence (AI) to ensure the safety of the population. According to forecast, the AI will help to prevent crimes and even act as an assistant in court proceedings.

Solutions based on AI have already formed the basis of many innovative ideas and technology trends: from smart house to the face recognition and even emotions simulation. Elements of artificial intelligence — machine and deep learning are now widely used in robotics. The Future Today Institute researchers assume — soon artificial intelligence will become a part of almost all technology inventions.

Voice and visual product search

According to the recent Gartner’s forecast, by 2021 leading trading companies will implement visual and voice product search to their platforms. Using AI technology, large online stores will be able to understand desires and interests of their consumers. Analysts predict that as a result of this innovation, marketplaces’ revenue will increase by 30%.

Indeed individual approach to the customer

Real-time learning — emerging trend in information technology, based on AI conception. Using this technology large online stores, for example, will be able to display the products individually for each user, depending on his/her behavior on the website. This innovative technology will help to adjust the website’s model using a continuous flow of transactions data in real time.

Transport Industry Innovations

While Tesla actively develops its self-driving cars, Amazon has, for the first time, demonstrated the successful drone delivery in a public place. It is quite obvious that emerging technology trends will soon change the habitual attitude to transportation and logistics.

Logistics Automation

ARC Advisory Group analysts believe that delivery automation is quite a topical issue not only for carriers but also for large online stores. Steve Banker, one of the ARC Advisory Group directors, notes — when retail trades increase from 9 to 30 percents large companies face the question — whether they are ready to be flexible enough in goods delivery.

The demand for web-based TMS and SCM solutions (system supply chain management) will grow in the coming years. Cloud services for the logistics automation will become a trend, which helps to optimize the process of goods delivery not only for 3PL-providers, large online stores will also benefit from this solutions.

Self-driving cars

Self-driving cars — another technology trend (based on the concept of artificial intelligence), which the biggest companies have a bet. Tesla already allows drivers to engage the autopilot in their cars, provided that they will follow the road. Uber has also recently launched about a hundred Autonomous cars on the streets of Pittsburgh. However, innovation meanwhile is only in a testing stage — Uber’s specialist is in the car and constantly oversees the work of the algorithm and security.

According to the Oliver Wyman’s forecast, by the 2030 half of the cars will be equipped with an autopilot feature. In a note to Forbes Oliver Wyman’s analysts even speculate about how insurance companies will assess risks, considering the growing number of self-driving cars. It is obvious that autonomous cars will soon become quite commonplace.

Mobile trends

Chatbots

Gartner experts have also predicted that by the 2021 year the largest enterprises will spend on chatbots much more than on mobile applications development, and the chatbots market share will be close to $3.5 billion. As we may see from the latest technology trends, chatbots will acquire human traits — firstly they will learn how to communicate (as Siri is already doing), and then to recognize and simulate human emotions.

We are getting into the so-called «post-application era» — virtual assistants, that are not tied to specific mobile programs will get leading positions. Experts believe that in a couple of years chatbots will penetrate all spheres of communication.

Internet of Х

In 1990 John Romkey created the world’s first Internet-thing, by connecting his toaster to the network. Since then, the number of devices managed via the Internet has grown considerably and formed the so-called Internet of Things or IoT. Now in there are about 9 billion «smart» objects that are managed via the Internet: mobile devices, industrial equipment, the smart house elements, etc. According to McKinsey, the number of smart devices will grow and will soon reach a trillion. Gartner experts recommend that businesses already, to start investing in IoT solutions:

«Every supplier must, at the very least, make plans to implement IoT technology into its products, for both consumer and business buyers.»

In parallel with the increasing number of smart devices, LPWA is developing (Low-Power Wide-area network, that is an alternative to Wi-Fi). LPWA will allow the signal to travel great distances and overcome obstacles. The LPWA evolution, along with the increasing number of smart devices, will push the development of the IoT. The Internet of Things will evolve to the Internet of X, the concept that can be applied to almost everything — assures Future Today Institute. As an example, scientists cite a startup Consumer Physics — using the application you can scan your food and get information about a number of calories it contains.

Education in the pocket

New innovations in technology appear almost every day and to stay on top of it, professionals in all fields will need to periodically update their knowledge. Considering the modern pace of life, online education is gaining momentum. Moreover, in order to reach its consumers, education should be as accessible as possible, so the futurists suggest a boom in educational mobile applications.

Big Data

The analysis of large amounts of data is already widely used by various companies. With the growing amount of information and the AI evolution, Big Data will develop and will be adapted to be applicable to even more spheres of life. Big Data will be one of the Online Marketing tools. This technology will allow to quickly process huge amounts of data about purchasing behavior. More about the technology we will write in the next article.

Experience design

User experience helps to highlight the company among competitors. Design based on user experience will continue its development together with the latest technologies. Traditional interfaces will transform in voice or even neural (the so-called «brain-computer»). The only thing that will stay unchanged — the main goal of a quality user experience is to make technological innovations convenient and user-friendly.

Originally published at stfalcon.com.