Trends Identified

Rethinking “Trust” in a New Era of Data Privacy
In 2018, we witnessed a groundbreaking shift in the way we think about data, privacy and brand trust. The culmination of high-profile corporate privacy scandals and new wide-sweeping data legislation has forced consumers to get to grips with their digital footprints. It’s compelled companies to confront and reevaluate what’s at stake concerning commercial data collection and processing. It’s also coincided with a sense of fatigue and disillusionment with contemporary online marketing techniques that has begun to boil over. While ad-blocking tools may have mitigated some of this disillusionment, they have increasingly and indiscriminately hacked away at vital revenue streams in companies that rely on online advertising. Together with pressure from declining print advertising revenues, the spread of ad-blocking tools has led many organizations to look towards pursuing new subscriptionbased business models to mitigate against the threat.
2019
Trends 19
GlobalWebIndex
Blockchain As A Service
In 2019 we will begin to see the first practical implementations of blockchain, beyond the cryptocurrency use case, and unlock distributed marketplaces and computing systems that leverage communities for sharing of resources in both a cost- and resource-efficient manner. These technologies will be enabled through the blockchain-as-a-service platforms being unveiled by IBM, Azure and AWS.
2018
2019 Tech Forecast: 11 Experts Predict The Next Wave Of Breakout Technologies
Forbes
A good user experience ≠ a good brand experience
In 2019, frictionless is the new commoditization. When “seamless” and “efficient” are the only goals in creating an experience, that consumer experience becomes merely transactional and there are few opportunities for brands to differentiate. Consider airline apps, for example. While it’s simple and streamlined to make or change a reservation or check flight status on any airline app, it’s harder to remember which airline app you are using.
2019
The top trends for brands to watch in 2019
Landor
Move over, Millennials; it’s Gen Z’s time.
In 2019, Generation Z will outnumber Millennials, that generation you’ve loved to hate for the past decade. “Generation Z is now heading into the workforce in meaningful numbers and for the first time in modern history five generations will be working side-by-side,” says Michael Dell, CEO and chairman of Dell Technologies. Gen Z — which Pew Research Center defines as those born from 1997 onward — will be about one-third of the global population and one-fifth of its workers. What is this new generation’s work ethic? “My experience is that they lean in and lean hard,” says best-selling author Brené Brown. About half of her staff is Gen Z. “They are all very different people, but as a group I experience them as curious, hopeful, always learning, painfully attuned to the suffering in the world, and anxious to do something about it.”
2018
50 Big Ideas for 2019: What to watch in the year ahead
LinkedIn
Enterprise Content Management
In 2019, more documentation will originate digitally, eliminating the need for organizations to “go paperless” in the first place. Enterprise Content Management (ECM) software integrates disparate data from across your organization through the use of electronic forms and automated workflows. By empowering this exchange of data, businesses maximize their return on investment (ROI) and customer acquisition costs (CAC) throughout customer lifecycles.
2018
2019 Tech Forecast: 11 Experts Predict The Next Wave Of Breakout Technologies
Forbes
Subscribe to the future
In 2019, we’ll see the sharing economy continue to give way to the subscription economy. Subscriptions that provide on-demand products and services will become the norm for a growing number of sectors and products. The subscription model can reframe the brand beyond the category, radically changing the business model and profoundly changing how marketers need to approach the entire product development, distribution, and go-to-market process. Subscription appeals to virtually every consumer, giving them access to highly personalized just-in-time inventory without the need to invest in big-ticket items. Older generations are generally accustomed to subscribing to a relatively small number of product categories—periodicals, cable television, smartphones, apartments, insurance—and those subscriptions tend to be static (you don’t get much flexibility in changing product preferences mid-subscription).
2019
The top trends for brands to watch in 2019
Landor
Agricultural biofactories
In 2028, synthetic biology will have the potential to produce different kinds of food, including meat and drinks at lower costs than today. By manipulating genes, brand-new foods can be created with new properties or flavours. The bioproduction industry is expected to reach $100 billion by 2020 alone. This technology, which uses glass or plastic vats (bioreactors), and needs only sun or sugar, algae and nutrients, can be located anywhere.
2013
Metascan 3 emerging technologies
Canada, Policy Horizons Canada
Architecture: What constitutes a 'city' will change
In 2035, most of humanity will live in favelas. This will not be entirely wonderful, as many people will live in very poor housing, but it will have its good side. It will mean that cities will consist of series of small units organised, at best, by the people who know what is best for themselves and, at worst, by local crime bosses. Cities will be too big and complex for any single power to understand and manage them. They already are, in fact. The word "city" will lose some of its meaning: it will make less and less sense to describe agglomerations of tens of millions of people as if they were one place, with one identity. If current dreams of urban agriculture come true, the distinction between town and country will blur. Attempts at control won't be abandoned, however, meaning that strange bubbles of luxury will appear, like shopping malls and office parks. To be optimistic, the human genius for inventing social structures will mean that new forms of settlement we can't quite imagine will begin to emerge. All this assumes that environmental catastrophe doesn't drive us into caves. Nor does it describe what will happen in Britain, with a roughly stable population and a planning policy dedicated to preserving the status quo as much as possible. Britain in 25 years' time may look much as it does now, which is not hugely different from 25 years ago.
2011
20 predictions for the next 25 years
The Guardian
4D Printing – Shape-Shifting and Dynamic Materials
In 4D printing, invented by MIT Self-Assembly Lab, the material used has dynamic capability and can change function, color, confirmation or properties, when certain qualities are changed, such as chemical, electronics, particulates or nanomaterials. The application of 4D printing will allow a completely new and re-design of currently used materials. Shape-shifting materials could disrupt many industries. The technology is in very early prototyping stage with an evolving intellectual property landscape with over 10 years before this technology becomes mainstream. Shape-shifting materials have already been leveraged in the automotive, aerospace, defense and medical industries. Further examples are transformable tissues that can support cell growth or NASA’s space chain mail, which can flexibly create a shield in space. Challenges are to obtain the exact shape-shifting results as designed and well as modeling the geometries, determining interactions for changing states and calculating the energy.
2018
Trend Report 2018 - Emerging Technology Trends
SAP
Measuring and communicating success
In a complex and rapidly changing world, we were interested in understanding which areas CEOs want to better measure and which areas they want to better communicate to the multiple stakeholders who interact with their organisations. We found that the key metrics CEOs would like to improve are the ones traditionally seen as ‘harder’ drivers of business success like innovation and risks, while the areas they want to better communicate are emotional, ‘softer’ issues around values and purpose (see Figure 15). But customers are seeking information about both the ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ drivers of business success. Indeed, real-time dashboards created and managed by users themselves are becoming feasible, raising expectations for more fresh and relevant information and ways of viewing it. Ultimately the CEO must deal with matters of the head and the heart, the rational and the emotional. Our research suggests that there is much room to improve on both the assessment and communication of key business areas, including of course, core financial data.
2016
19th Annual global CEO survey
PWC