Trends Identified

Global marketplace

Faster growth rates and favorable demographics in key rapid-growth markets will continue to be a feature of the next decade or so. The gulf between “mature” and “rapid-growth” countries continues to shrink. A new tier of emerging nations, driven by their own nascent middle classes, will draw global attention. Innovation will increasingly take place in rapid-growth markets, with Asia surfacing as a major hub. In the global marketplace, the war for talent will become increasingly fierce, necessitating greater workforce diversity to secure competitive advantage. The economies of the world will remain highly interdependent through trade, investment and financial system linkages, driving the need for stronger global policy coordination among nations and resilient supply chains for companies operating in this environment. At the same time, domestic interests will continue to clash and compete with the forces of global integration. Pushback and opposition to global integration manifests itself in various economic, political and cultural forms, including trade and currency protectionism, the imposition of sanctions to achieve political aims, anti-globalization protests, as well as the strengthening of nationalistic, religious and ethnic movements around the world.

2015

Megatrends 2015 -Making sense of a world in motion

EY

Next-generation genomics

Fast, low-cost gene sequencing, advanced big data analytics, and synthetic biology (“writing” DNA)

2013

Disruptive technologies: Advances that will transform life, business, and the global economy

McKinsey

Fashion: 'Technology creates smarter clothes'

Fashion is such an important part of the way in which we communicate our identity to others, and for a very long time it's meant dress: the textile garments on our body. But in the coming decades, I think there'll be much more emphasis on other manifestations of fashion and different ways of communicating with each other, different ways of creating a sense of belonging and of making us feel great about ourselves. We're already designing our identities online – manipulating imagery to tell a story about ourselves. Instead of meeting in the street or in a bar and having a conversation and looking at what each other is wearing, we're communicating in some depth through these new channels. With clothing, I think it's possible that we'll see a polarisation between items that are very practical and those that are very much about display – and maybe these are not things that you own but that you borrow or share.Technology is already being used to create clothing that fits better and is smarter; it is able to transmit a degree of information back to you. This is partly driven by customer demand and the desire to know where clothing comes from – so we'll see tags on garments that tell you where every part of it was made, and some of this, I suspect, will be legislation-driven, too, for similar reasons, particularly as resources become scarcer and it becomes increasingly important to recognise water and carbon footprints. However, it's not simply an issue of functionality. Fashion's gone through a big cycle in the last 25 years – from being something that was treasured and cherished to being something that felt disposable, because of a drop in prices. In fact, we've completely changed our relationship towards clothes and there's a real feeling among designers who I work with that they're trying to work back into their designs an element of emotional content. I think there's definitely a place for technology in creating a dialogue with you through your clothes.

2011

20 predictions for the next 25 years

The Guardian

Robots on the farm

Farming has the potential to become far more resource-efficient and environmentally friendly on existing farmland, given the prospects for greater automation using_x000B_AI, robotics and sensors. Flying drones could monitor large fields more quickly and precisely. With information from these drones, as well as that provided by satellites and sensors, automated tractors and sprayers could apply water, seeds, pesticides and nutrients in more targeted and timely ways. This precision could further be enhanced through nanomaterial-based, slow-release pesticides and insecticides. Robotic pickers will continue to emerge and, in time, be able to harvest more types of crops. Automated agriculture could make indoor agriculture more viable in regions where the impact of climate change is degrading arable land, food supply and reliability.

2013

Metascan 3 emerging technologies

Canada, Policy Horizons Canada

Facial Recognition Applications Surge

Facial Recognition solutions can be utilised across a host of arenas, from security to personalised marketing. Technology has the potential to deliver benefits ranging from frictionless authentication and payment to improved brand interaction.

2018

Top Tech trends 2018

Juniper Research

Social-driven IT

Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and other forms of social media are not just new communication channels to customers. They are powerful catalysts that are changing the ways your customers, employees, and partners use technology to interact with the world around them. Most organizations have yet to catch up to that reality, and almost none take full advantage of it. They must.

2012

Accenture Technology Vision 2012

Accenture

Increasing occurrence of severe weather events

Extreme weather events are a major consequence of climate change,
and are becoming more frequent, powerful and erratic. What is needed is not just relief when disaster strikes, but adaptation to the massive effects these phenomena produce, including disease, political unrest and economic stress – issues explored elsewhere in this report. It’s obvious that adapting to – or ideally, preventing severe weather events –results in a better outcome for everyone.

2014

Outlook on the global agenda 2015

World Economic Forum (WEF)

Advanced oil and gas exploration and recovery

Exploration and recovery techniques that make extraction of unconventional oil and gas economical

2013

Disruptive technologies: Advances that will transform life, business, and the global economy

McKinsey

Asteroid mining

Exploatation of non-terrestrial resources has been predicated for quite some time. However tools and hardware have been developed notably in the USA (both by NASA and private companies) to characterise and identify appropriate Near Earth Objects (NEOs) to eventually dock with them and exploit their resources. Asteroid mining is also linked to the protection of Earth from geocruisers and thus to the detection and tracking of such dangerous space objects.

2015

Preparing the Commission for future opportunities - Foresight network fiches 2030

European Strategy and Policy Analysis System (ESPAS)

Focus on Transparency

Expectations of government transparency are growing while personal data is becoming more ubiquitous, creating new implications for privacy, cybersecurity, and accountability.

2017

Beyond the Noise- The Megatrends of Tomorrow’s World

Deloitte