Trends Identified

Cracking the commerce code
In Asia, social commerce adoption has been swift,41 with 70 percent of China’s Gen Zers now opting to buy direct from social.42 In North America, however, social commerce hasn’t kept pace. Despite the longhyped promise of buy buttons, people aren’t yet buying on social in huge numbers.4
2019
Social media trends 2019
Hootsuit
Big data and analytics
In an Industry 4.0 context, the collection and comprehensive evaluation of data from many different sources—production equipment and systems as well as enterprise- and customer-management systems—will become standard to support real-time decision making.
2015
Nine Technologies Transforming Industrial Production
Boston Consulting Group (BCG)
Illuminating supply chains
In an increasingly globalised world, understanding supply chains in the food and retail sector can be di cult and lead to the unfair treatment of workers, who are invisible to consumers at the point of purchase. Increasing transparency via new technologies allows consumers, companies, and others to influence supply chain choices.
2018
Global opportunity report
DNV GL
For respite, we will turn to inspirational commerce.
In an anxious world, we’re going to need more than a juice cleanse to take care of our exhausted psyches, writes Gina Bianchini, CEO of Mighty Networks. Health and wellness influencers, exhausted themselves, are shifting their models to building supportive communities and connecting their fans to each other, rather than amassing a large number of one-way followers — communities they can monetize through memberships or events. Bianchini writes: "While the first generation of e-commerce was about selling physical products online, this coming wave of 'inspirational commerce' is about creating opportunities for people to buy experiences and connections to realize their full potential.”
2018
50 Big Ideas for 2019: What to watch in the year ahead
LinkedIn
Data Privacy Will Adopt a Risk-based Approach
In an age when WikiLeaks has become a household name, every business leader is right to be even more paranoid about data privacy. Just as leading organizations now realize there is no such thing as 100 percent IT security, so complete data privacy is being exposed as a myth. In one study, the Wall Street Journal assessed and analyzed the cookies and other surveillance technology that companies use on the Internet. The study found that the nation’s 50 top web sites on average installed 64 pieces of tracking technology onto the computers of visitors, usually with no warning. A dozen sites installed more than a hundred each. 9 It will not be enough simply to accept the reality of data leaks. It will require very proactive responses from organizations to understand the risks surrounding the use and misuse of personal data. And it will require constant vigilance because things are changing so fast.
2011
Accenture Technology Vision 2011
Accenture
Mind the information and skills gaps
In addition to the fault lines developing geopolitically, CEOs are working to bridge the gaps in their own capabilities. Organisations are struggling to translate a deluge of data into better decision making. There is a shortage of skilled talent to clean, integrate, and extract value from big data and move beyond baby steps toward artificial intelligence (AI). One of the more striking findings in this year’s survey was the fact that — despite billions of dollars of investment1 and priority positioning on the C-suite agenda — the gap between the information CEOs need and what they get has not closed in the past ten years.
2019
22nd Annual global CEO survey
PWC
Social innovation
In addition to technological, product, process, organizational and marketing innovations, social innovation answers to pressing social demands that require the combination of actions coming from the market, the public sector and the civil society. Social innovation delivers results that are positive for economic and social cohesion (cf. new social problems, vulnerable groups, gender discriminations), create new social relationships and foster collaborative economy. Social innovation addresses societal and environmental challenges while improving collective wellbeing. Social innovations are particularly relevant in times of crises and budgetary constraints.
2015
Preparing the Commission for future opportunities - Foresight network fiches 2030
European Strategy and Policy Analysis System (ESPAS)
New modes of travel, improved health and longevity, and the ability to travel through time top the list of futuristic inventions Americans would like to own
In addition to capturing the public’s attitudes toward specific inventions or future outcomes, we also offered them the opportunity to tell us—in their own words—which futuristic invention they themselves would want to own. Based on their responses, many Americans are looking forward to a future in which getting from place to place is easier, more comfortable, or more adventuresome than it is today. A total of 19% of Americans would like to own a travel-related invention of some kind, including: a flying car or flying bike (6%), a personal space craft (4%), a self-driving car (3%), a teleportation device (3%), a jet pack (1%), or a hover car or hover board (1%).
2014
US views of technology and the future - science in the next 50 years
Pew Research Center
Real or replica?
In a world of growing mistrust, where tech is presenting us with curated social media, fake videos, voice assistants and virtual entities, people are re-evaluating who is real and who is not.
2019
Trends 2019
Mindshare
Conscientious objectors rise up in the workforce.
In a tight labor market, professionals can afford to have principles. It’s starting with Google, always a bellwether of corporate culture, where in the past few months, employees have spoken up against the company launching a censored service in China, forced it to back out of a contract with the Pentagon and staged a walkout to protest sexual harassment in the workplace. “Employees at these companies are no longer going to stand for leadership doing things they just don’t believe in,” Ross Martin, Blackbird CEO, says. This instinct is particularly potent among Millennial and Gen Z workers, Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman notes. “This idealism has opened a generational rift between managers and our younger protégés, who can sometimes be strident,” he says. “But their passion is one of the main reasons I’m excited about the future: The people just entering the workforce now will become the conscience of the corporation.”
2018
50 Big Ideas for 2019: What to watch in the year ahead
LinkedIn