Trends Identified
Internet of Things
Gartner calls the combination of technologies and the connection of people, devices, content and services the "intelligent digital mesh." This is the foundation for new business models, platforms and possibilities that will transform how we live and work with implications that go far beyond the technology itself and involve disciplines such as law, economics, business and politics. It is early days for the application of IoT strategy but it is clear that opportunities will exist for those with the technical knowledge to connect platforms as well as those with the data analytics skills to utilise the rich stream of information generated by IoT applications. What could you learn from connecting and analysing the data from your products or elements of your core operations?
2019
Five tech trends for 2019
University of Technology Sydney
Gamification
Gaming gets serious Gamification is about taking the essence of games – fun, play and passion – and applying it to real-world, non-game situations. In a business setting, that means designing solutions using gaming principles in everything from back-office tasks and training to sales management and career counseling. Game mechanics lie at the heart of gamification. For example, achievement levels, pointtracking and bonuses are ways for desired activities to be recognised and rewarded. Leaderboards and progression indicators can steer individuals to reach the next tier of performance. Quests and countdowns can help shape behavior – the former as a way to structure long combinations of tasks for a larger goal; the latter to motivate a flurry of activity within a finite, specified timeframe.
2012
Tech Trends 2012-Elevate IT for digital business
Deloitte
AI's dominance in our lives
Futurist Ray Kurzweil has made a host of predictions – some inspirational, others downright alarming. One of them is the sci-fi-sounding notion that suggests artificial intelligence will one day become more powerful than human intelligence and improve itself at an exponential rate, otherwise known as ‘the singularity’.It’s far from the majority view, but few would deny that AI is only going to get more powerful. So, like in the case of gene editing, the tech and AI community will need to consider the ethical and societal implications of their work as AI comes to shape more realms of our life, from healthcare to financial markets. As for end-of-the-world extinction scenarios, it’s frankly not likely – but that shouldn’t obscure the fact that AI is poised to change how we live and work in profound ways. It is also not impossible that specific AIs could malfunction or run out of their creators’ control, leading to very human disasters, where lives are lost or millions of dollars are wiped out.
2017
10 grand challenges we’ll face by 2050
The BBC
Changing Demographics
Future demographics will be driven by diverse effects. The world’s population is expected to reach more than 8 billion by 2030,28 but this growth will be unbalanced with varying regional effects. The average age of most Western populations is forecast to increase from the early to the mid-40s by 2030.29 Given higher birth and immigration rates, the United States will remain the youngest of the leading powers, while China’s population will age more rapidly given its increased longevity and lower birth rates. Accordingly, China will join Japan, Europe and Russia as one of the most rapidly ageing societies. India is expected to overtake China as the most populous country, whereas Russia and Brazil are likely to follow divergent paths with expected strong growth in Brazil and population decline in Russia. By 2030, the African continent is anticipated to have the fastest growing population.
2013
Strategic Foresight Analysis 2013 Report
NATO
Digital Future
Fueled by the convergence of social, mobile, cloud, big data and growing demand for anytime anywhere access to information, technology is disrupting all areas of the business enterprise. Disruption is taking place across all industries and in all geographies. Enormous opportunities exist for enterprises to take advantage of connected devices enabled by the “Internet of Things” to capture vast amounts of information, enter new markets, transform existing products, and introduce new business and delivery models. However, the evolution of the digital enterprise also presents significant challenges, including new competition, changing customer engagement and business models, unprecedented transparency, privacy concerns and cybersecurity threats.
2015
Megatrends 2015 -Making sense of a world in motion
EY
Fuel cells
Fuel cells are also potential avenues for development in environmentally-friendly energy. The development of devices offering direct conversion of a fuel’s chemical energy into electricity has for several decades laid claim to the role of a breakthrough technology capable of completely revolutionising the energy sector. The achievements of recent years have brought this technology close to the stage of mass commercial adoption and have regained interest from energy companies. Three main types of fuel cells use are being considered: stationary energy (electricity generation, cogeneration, uninterruptible power supply units); transport energy (power sources in electric vehicles, trucks, military equipment, spacecraft, etc.); portable energy (power sources in mobile devices, battery chargers, etc.). The key strengths of fuel cells are considered to be their high efficiency factor (60–80%) and small size. Shortfalls include the lack of infrastructure for charging and the high cost of platinum which is used as a catalyst.
2016
Russia 2030: science and technology foresight
Russia, Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation
Fuel cells, catalysts for innovative energy sources
Fuel cells and catalysts for innovative energy sources will be able to use the large number of nanotechnological materials used to design various types of energy sources. In particular, these include: hybrid nanostructured proton-conducting membranes including nanoparticles which improve their transmission properties, and nano-scale catalysts based on platinum and transition metals (including “core in the shell” type catalysts) used to create fuel cells; nano-scale cathode materials with mixed electron-ion conductivity and nanostructured anode materials based on various forms of silicon and carbon, from which lithium-ion batteries are formed; There will also be developed catalysts to produce innovative energy sources and chemical products many of which are already used in industrial production. efficient nano-scale catalysts for deep processing of oil and gas products; nano-scale catalysts for conversion of natural gas and associated gases into liquid petroleum, hydrogen and valuable organic products; nano-sized catalysts for processing renewable raw materials (biogas and biomass) into valuable organic products; a wide range of nano-sized catalysts for the production of innovative energy sources and processing of natural ones;
nano-scale granular membranes based on complex oxides with a perovskite, spinel and fluorite structure, used in processes to partially oxidise methane and associated gases into synthesis gas at low temperatures, or nano-scale catalysts to convert biomass products into synthesis gas.
2016
Russia 2030: science and technology foresight
Russia, Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation
Fourth-generation system development
From the mainframe era, through client-server, and into the era of the desktop, the history of computing has been shaped by new capabilities (new hardware, new algorithms, new ways of doing things) that in turn stimulate new kinds of demands. Simply giving the 1980s-era personal computer a network connection, for example, turned out to have far-reaching effects on how enterprise systems were designed, built and used. In this decade, a wave of new capabilities will push system architecture into unexplored territory, ushering in a fourth generation of system-building. The forces propelling this new era are, as always, both technological and economic. The technologies range from parallel chip architectures to multi-tenancy, from new data storage techniques to advancements in programming languages. The economies are economies of scale: the cost profile of modern data centers or the efficiencies wrung from the manufacture of mobile chips. But progress may not be as smoothly and broadly distributed as it was in the age of Moore’s Law. Instead, innovations may be more localized, confined to more narrow domains. Competitive advantage will go to those who are aware of the technology hot spots, able to discern what will prove useful—and ready with the skills to seize the opportunity.
2010
Accenture technology vision
Accenture
Body-adapted Wearable Electronics
From Google Glass to the Fitbit wristband, wearable technology has generated significant attention over the past year, with most existing devices helping people to better understand their personal health and fitness by monitoring exercise, heart rate, sleep patterns, and so on. The sector is shifting beyond external wearables like wristbands or clip-on devices to “body-adapted” electronics that further push the ever-shifting boundary between humans and technology.The new generation of wearables is designed to adapt to the human body’s shape at the place of deployment. These wearables are typically tiny, packed with a wide range of sensors and a feedback system, and camouflaged to make their use less intrusive and more socially acceptable. These virtually invisible devices include earbuds that monitor heart rate, sensors worn under clothes to track posture, a temporary tattoo that tracks health vitals and haptic shoe soles that communicate GPS directions through vibration alerts felt by the feet. The applications are many and varied: haptic shoes are currently proposed for helping blind people navigate, while Google Glass has already been worn by oncologists to assist in surgery via medical records and other visual information accessed by voice commands.Technology analysts consider that success factors for wearable products include device size, non-invasiveness, and the ability to measure multiple parameters and provide real-time feedback that improves user behaviour. However, increased uptake also depends on social acceptability as regards privacy. For example, concerns have been raised about wearable devices that use cameras for facial recognition and memory assistance. Assuming these challenges can be managed, analysts project hundreds of millions of devices in use by 2016.
2014
Top 10 emerging technologies for 2014
World Economic Forum (WEF)
Artificial Intelligence
From gaming to the battlefield
2017
Top 50 Emerging Technologies 2017
Frost & Sullivan