Technology of Trends

A decade is a long time in technology. Given how prevalent they are now, it’s easy to forget that ten years ago, few of us had heard of cloud computing, deep learning, or Likewise, by 2030, the tech landscape may look very different than it does today.

Progress is sure to throw a few curveballs – for example, if I was writing an equivalent list in 2010, while I like to think I might have had the foresight to predict AI and the “app economy” would be a big part of everyday life by 2020, I may not have realized how much of a big deal cloud and “everything-as-a-service” would become.

With that in mind, here’s an overview of what I feel will be the most important trends throughout this decade. Individually they all have the potential to be as transformational as anything we’ve seen so far. But as with cloud, AI, and LoT over the past ten years, the truly revolutionary developments will be seen when they are applied together to push the boundaries of what we can do with technology.

Ubiquitous computing

A paradigm under which computers are no longer discrete objects that can be applied to various tasks but built into just about everything we use in order to make them more efficient at their job. Cloud computing, edge computing, IoT, and wearables are all trends that fit this concept. Ubiquitous computing is about creating IT strategies that deploy all of these capabilities in tandem to go beyond what’s possible with each one individually. Throwing AI and cognitive computing capabilities into the mix means all elements of the system will learn from each other, creating streams of data and insights that will impact many areas of our lives. By 2030, Cisco predicts that there will be 500 billion devices connected to the internet – roughly 50 devices for every person on the planet!

Connected and smart everything

Ubiquitous computing refers to the paradigm or ecosystem and infrastructure, but we can expect to see continued development on the hardware side as well, as more and more devices become networkable and capable of communicating and sharing data. Smartphones will probably still be most people’s interface with the digital world for some time yet – light, portable and economical on power consumption as they are. But miniaturization and advances in user interface design will bring changes to the way we use many other devices alongside the smartwatches, TVs, cars, kitchen appliances, and toilets that are already on the market. The merging of smart products with smart services that extend their usefulness will be another strong trend – for example, health insurance provider Vitality uses a number of smart devices such as watches and exercise equipment to track and assess their customers' progress toward more healthy lifestyles, rewarding them when they hit targets such as becoming more active. Other products focus on workplace wellness and performance, monitoring stress and activity levels to give insights that can improve employee health and productivity.