Trends Identified

The energy future is digital

Energy system of the future characterised by volatile wind and solar renewable energies. The IT and energy sectors are growing together. Only a combination of both will be able to reliably match the energy supply and demand at all times. The rapid cost degression in the storage technology, particularly for small and large battery banks, opens up the possibility of reliable energy supply at any time, finally even with a 100 per cent transfer to renewable energies.

2015

Megatrends in the global energy transition

WWF Germany

Sanitation without sewers

Energy-efficient toilets can operate without a sewer system and treat waste on the spot. About 2.3 billion people don’t have good sanitation. The lack of proper toilets encourages people to dump fecal matter into nearby ponds and streams, spreading bacteria, viruses, and parasites that can cause diarrhea and cholera. Diarrhea causes one in nine child deaths worldwide. Now researchers are working to build a new kind of toilet that’s cheap enough for the developing world and can not only dispose of waste but treat it as well. In 2011 Bill Gates created what was essentially the X Prize in this area—the Reinvent the Toilet Challenge. Since the contest’s launch, several teams have put prototypes in the field. All process the waste locally, so there’s no need for large amounts of water to carry it to a distant treatment plant. Most of the prototypes are self-contained and don’t need sewers, but they look like traditional toilets housed in small buildings or storage containers. The NEWgenerator toilet, designed at the University of South Florida, filters out pollutants with an anaerobic membrane, which has pores smaller than bacteria and viruses. Another project, from Connecticut-based Biomass Controls, is a refinery the size of a shipping container; it heats the waste to produce a carbon-rich material that can, among other things, fertilize soil. One drawback is that the toilets don’t work at every scale. The Biomass Controls product, for example, is designed primarily for tens of thousands of users per day, which makes it less well suited for smaller villages. Another system, developed at Duke University, is meant to be used only by a few nearby homes. So the challenge now is to make these toilets cheaper and more adaptable to communities of different sizes. “It’s great to build one or two units,” says Daniel Yeh, an associate professor at the University of South Florida, who led the NEWgenerator team. “But to really have the technology impact the world, the only way to do that is mass-produce the units.” —Erin Winick

2019

10 Breakthrough Technologies 2019 - How we’ll invent the future, by Bill Gates

MIT Technology Review

Language Development

English is likely to consolidate its position as the internationally dominant language for data and global services. Other supplementary transnational languages, such as Mandarin, Spanish and Arabic, may also proliferate as engagement in globalised communication increases. Sophisticated translation devices are likely to become widely available before 2040.

2010

Global strategic trends - out to 2040

UK, Ministry of Defence

Industrialized crowdsourcing - Sometimes more is better

Enterprise adoption of the power of the crowd allows specialized skills to be dynamically sourced from anyone, anywhere, and only as needed. Companies can use the collective knowledge of the masses to help with tasks from data entry and coding to advanced analytics and product development. The potential for disruptive impact on cost alone likely makes early experimentation worthwhile, but there are also broader implications for innovation in the enterprise.

2014

Tech trends 2014 - Inspiring Disruption

Deloitte

Secure US to Secure ME

Enterprises are not victims, they’re vectors While ecosystem-driven business depends on interconnectedness, those connections increase companies’ exposures to risks. Leading businesses are recognizing that just as they already collaborate with entire ecosystems to deliver best-in-class products, services, and experiences, it’s time security joins that effort as well.

2019

Accenture Technology Vision 2019- The Post-Digital Era is Upon Us ARE YOU READY FOR WHAT’S NEXT?

Accenture

Alternative data, machine learning and artificial intelligence are a powerful combination

Enterprises need to become data driven to succeed in the current business environment. The ability to make both structured, unstructured and alternative datasets actionable can be a significant differentiator. In some cases it is necessary just to stay relevant. This is true across all industries, including finance. Traditionally, investor analysis involved looking at a company’s 10Ks and 10Qs, market data and the technical analysis of the trading activity. Nowadays, investors see an opportunity to use alternative datasets from sources such as Quandl to make better decisions. For example, they might look at month-over-month sales and compare those figures to the company’s peer group, and track the company’s supply chain for insight into future production flows, sales and sources of risk. Clearly, alternative datasets, analytics, and machine learning/ artificial intelligence (AI) are a powerful combination. The advancements in AI are coming rapidly. New techniques such as reinforcement learning as well as generative adversarial networks (GANs), which are a type of deep learning neural network, are starting to attract attention. They are also extending capabilities beyond what was possible with standard machine learning and deep learning algorithms. GANs for instance will allow AI to compete with itself to come up with an optimal model in real time, resulting in greater accuracy. A potential application is in risk management. All these technology enhancements have not brought us much closer to having a generalized AI (capable of super-humanlike intelligence across any subject). However, companies are achieving success by focusing on narrow AI applications where an algorithm can be trained to do one thing extremely well, surpassing the capabilities of what a human could do on their own. Financial firms are doing this to detect spoofing behavior or risky trading activity. For example, they use these narrow AI algorithms to build applications that are much more sophisticated and accurate than their traditional counterparts. Generalized AI – the ability for a machine to successfully perform any intellectual task that a human being can – is still about a decade away. Yet it is becoming easier to interact with Siri, Alexa and Google Assistant, and every question people ask is another narrow AI application. Before long, it will be possible to put together millions of questions and answers, drawing us farther down the path to generalized AI – especially as the technology improves.Until then, the greatest opportunity and challenge is knowing the right narrow AI applications to develop. Commercial success is dependent on having a clear understanding of how, when and why people will use something new rather than relying on their tried and tested human intelligence. Behavioral science methods are becoming recognized as the differentiator to deliver this understanding, and the way forward could be through “collaborative intelligence”, involving a reimagining of people and machines working together. Achieving this requires behavioral scientists to do a new depth of analysis of clients’ cognitive and manual working processes. This ensures the best of human and machine capabilities can be leveraged to deliver this new way of working. In the meantime, Nasdaq’s strategy is to build a community of data suppliers and connect them with a community of data consumers, and then provide the services they need to make the data actionable. As we build up our data repositories, and we connect them to Nasdaq Financial Framework, those datasets and technologies will become available to an array of market participants.

2019

NASDAQ DECODES: TECH TRENDS 2019 -The technology trends that are driving the world of markets forward

Nasdaq

The Rise of Green Consumerism: What Do Brands Need to Know?

Environmental degradation is hitting the headlines lately. News articles and documentaries around rising seas, declining air quality and shrinking animal populations are now more common than ever - and they’re beginning to cut through. A couple of moments stand out in particular. In Australia, it was the War on Waste TV program, while in the UK, David Attenborough’s Blue Planet II series sparked a cultural shift around plastic consumption. Sales of reusable coffee cups and water bottles took off, plastic straws were banned in many bars and restaurants, and brands like Evian and Coca-Cola promised packaging made from recycled materials. The impulse to “be greener” is clearly gaining momentum. According to a recent bespoke study we carried out in the UK and U.S., half of digital consumers say environmental concerns impact their purchasing decisions. There’s a difference between intention and action, but brands could miss out on a big group of consumers if their green credentials aren’t up to scratch.

2019

Trends 19

GlobalWebIndex

Erosion of Governance

Erosion of Governance the decline of the traditional world order. Direct democracy: As power is shifting more into the hands of individuals, direct democracy has the potential to severely affect the trajectory of several political and economic debates. Consider the 2016 Brexit Referendum in the United Kingdom, which resulted in a 52% to 48% vote to leave the European Union. Direct democracy played a major role in this referendum as every vote mattered in a race with such tight margins. Decentralization: Historically, transactions were managed with the use of handwritten accounting ledgers in which the type, amount, and parties of a transaction were captured. Over the years, this private ledger has evolved with the advent of computing. Today, we see the emergence of a decentralized form of governance aided by technology: the blockchain. The blockchain is an open-source distributed ledger system to which an infinite number of parties can contribute, promoting accountability and trust in a system previously managed by a few. Resource disputes: Land and sea disputes have always existed but as governance models shift and resource scarcity rises, territorial disputes have started to have significant environmental undertones. For example, recently an international tribunal voted that China’s claim to territorial rights to the oil and gas reserves in the South China Sea had no legal basis, and that its actions (such as the construction of artificial islands) had endangered the marine environment and interfered with the Philippine’s fishing and oil industries. Free markets: Support for free market ideologies has started to grow as societies begin to get tired of a series of public policies that are thought to benefit only the rich. With socioeconomic inequities widening, the clamor for a reduction in government intervention is at an all-time high and the desire to return to a free market economy in which the “invisible hand” directs outcomes is gaining traction. Alternative governments: As political tensions increase, countries become more nationalistic, and socioeconomic inequities continue to divide nation states, the old models of global governance are being tested and challenged. New, alternative governments are rising to power, capitalizing on the pervasive frustration felt by the middle class and the lack of consensus about collaborative governance.

2017

Beyond the Noise- The Megatrends of Tomorrow’s World

Deloitte

Can Esports Actually Make it into the Mainstream?

Esports is well on its way to becoming a household name. Almost 70% of internet users in the UK and U.S. alone have now heard of the term “esports”, with as many as half of those aged 55-64 also being aware of these competitive video game tournaments. Sell-out stadiums and prize pools of $100 million dollars have increased esports’ exposure and shored up any reservations over its longevity, providing a powerful reminder of how much the genre has grown since the first official tournaments took place in the 1990s. A significant chunk of this growth has been in the last year. Among those who say they watch esports content in the UK and U.S., more than 60% watch it at least once a week, with 3 in 10 saying they hadn’t even heard of esports more than a year ago. 2018 has witnessed major structural developments in esports, with franchised leagues bringing it closer to the model of traditional sports. This is making esports a more cohesive and accessible genre of entertainment among new audiences, and helping to win over potential investors and sponsors anxious for signs of strong revenue generating potential. With these structural tweaks all working in harmony, 2019 is the year esports is approaching its tipping point.

2019

Trends 19

GlobalWebIndex

Growing need to restore citizens’ perceptions about voice

EU citizens have increasingly grown discontented about the functioning of the EU as a political system. When asked whether their voice matters in the EU a record 67% of the electorate thinks it does not.

2014

Challenges at the horizon 2025

European Strategy and Policy Analysis System (ESPAS)