Every year, Gartner, the global research and advisory firm compiles a list of tech trends they think will make the biggest impact over the next 12 months, and they’ve become adept at predicting what consumers and tech companies will focus on.
These top trends are some of what they said would be hot in 2019, and it is interesting to see how, half way through the year, they seem to be quite spot on.
AI
This is kind of a given, and AI is certainly a hot trend for the year.
Gartner has predicted that by 2022 at least 40% of app development projects will incorporate some form of AI, and we can already see AI working in a number of sectors of our lives.
Autonomous cars
There are already quite a few self-driving cars that have been developed by Google and other brands like Uber, and autonomous vehicles are becoming increasingly popular.
Many new cars are incorporating adaptive cruise control and self-driving elements, and it is only a matter of time before self-driving cars hit the mainstream market.
Immersive Experiences
Immersive technologies have become an enormous draw card for consumers, and an increasing number of brands are incorporating immersive tech for both commercial and enterprise use.
While this is a hot trend, it is predicted that only 25% of immersive tech that is developed will actually reach the end user.
Augmented Analytics
Data scientists are in demand and it is predicted that by 2020 the number of citizen scientists will grow at 5x the rate of experts.
Augmented analytics will play a huge role in this shift, and will b able to assist in numerous ways.
Digital Twins
Digital twins are the digital version of a real physical object. Essentially there are 3 types of digital wins, namely the Product, Production, and Performance, and these can be used to great effect in just about every manufacturing sector.
Blockchain
It’s big now, and it’s only getting bigger. Blockchain went mainstream with Bitcoin, but it has become so much more than that.
It’s cropping up in everything from banking to the medical sector and even helps in the processing of some online Bingo transactions, and it is predicted that by 2030 it will create $3.1 trillion in business value.
Ethics and Privacy
After the Cambridge Analytica/Facebook scandal there has been a major focus on privacy and ethics, with the demand for both being at the forefront of consumers and users minds.
Gartner predicts that company’s that don’t comply with standard privacy protection policies and adhere to stringent security protocols will fall behind those that are proven to do so, and will pay the price dearly.
Quantum Computing
Currently only 1% of organisations are budgeting for projects that include quantum computers, but Gartner says this is set to change, and already this year there has been an increased interest in them.
By 2023 it is estimated that at least 20% of organisation will include some element of Quantum computing in their budget.