Trends Identified
Additive manufacturing
Companies have just begun to adopt additive manufacturing, such as 3-D printing, which they use mostly to prototype and produce individual components. With Industry 4.0, these additive-manufacturing methods will be widely used to produce small batches of customized products that offer construction advantages, such as complex, lightweight designs.
2015
Nine Technologies Transforming Industrial Production
Boston Consulting Group (BCG)
Intelligent Automation
Companies got started with robotic process automation (RPA) to streamline processes and reduce costs. Now, the automation toolbox continues to expand — and get smarter. This includes everything from natural language processing and machine learning to orchestration software and automation platforms that help you optimize what work is best suited for people and which is best done by machines. The shift to more intelligent automation will yield returns that go far beyond cost savings, such as better customer and employee experience, improved quality due to fewer errors, and reimagined processes that change how business is done.
2017
The Essential Eight - Your guide to the emerging technologies revolutionizing business now
PWC
Liquid Workforce
Companies are investing in the tools and technologies they need to keep pace with constant change in the digital era. But there is typically a critical factor that is falling behind: the workforce. Companies need more than the right technology; they need to harness that technology to enable the right people to do the right things in an adaptable, change-ready, and responsive liquid workforce.
2016
Accenture Technology Vision 2016
Accenture
Ecosystem power plays
Companies are increasingly integrating their core business functionalities with third parties and their platforms. But rather than treat them like partnerships of old, forward-thinking leaders leverage these relationships to build their role in new digital ecosystems – instrumental to unlocking their next waves of strategic growth. As they do, they’re designing future value chains that will transform their businesses, products, and even the market itself.
2017
Technology vision 2017, amplify you
Accenture
Satellites and drones
Communication satellites have been used for Internet access in rural areas and developing countries since the early days of the Internet, and the industry has remained viable as a result of technical progress in launch technology (public and private), antennas, solar power, radios and other electronics, as well as tuning of TCP/IP protocols to account for the quartersecond latency due to the orbital altitude. It has been suggested that these technologies have progressed to the point where high-altitude platform stations (HAPSs) and lower orbit satellites are now viable as well. HAPSs are non-rigid airships, drones or balloons that hover or circulate around 15–30 km in the stratosphere (UNCTAD, 2014a). HAPSs have lower transmission delay (latency), but their signal cover (footprint) tends to be lower compared to other technologies (ibid.:38). An example of a project that offers broadband Internet using satellite communications is the Google Project Loon (ibid.), which uses HAPSs to create an aerial wireless network with up to 3G-like speeds.
2018
Technology and Innovation Report 2018
UNCTAD
Increased Access to Technology
Commercial research and technology has begun to outpace that of governments in the development of new technologies. Many of the advances in goods, materials and technologies intended for civilian use (e.g. nuclear energy, biochemical medicine, or access to space and its associated technologies) will have potential applications in the development of weapon systems. This increases the possibility that non-state actors could gain access to advanced weapons or even WMD/E. The effectiveness of regulatory conventions intended to prevent the spread of potentially dangerous technologies will be reduced by increased access within the globalised marketplace. As world trade grows, norms regarding non-proliferation may become secondary to economic benefits. The threat of uncontrolled proliferation of weapon technology to non-state actors will increase as innovation, research and development, production, and distribution become more open and globalised.
2013
Strategic Foresight Analysis 2013 Report
NATO
Emerging service and knowledge economies
Coming out of the mining boom, Australia continues to grow the service sector and knowledge economy. The labour upskilling trends across Australian industries provides evidence of the rise of the knowledge economy1. At the same time, service industries are growing faster.
2017
Surfing the digital tsunami
Australia, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO)
The silk highway
Coming decades will see
the world economy shift from west to east and north to south. Rapid income growth in Asia and, to a lesser extent, South America and Africa will see billions of people transition out of poverty and into the middle income classes. The powerhouses of the new world economy are China and India. This economic shift will build new export markets, trade relations, business models and cultural ties for Australia. Tourists, funds and ideas will increasingly ow out of Asian countries and into Australia’s economy and society. We are stepping into the Asian Century.
2012
Our future world - globla megatrends that will change the way we live
Australia, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO)
IoT becomes BIoT
Combining IoT with blockchain —or BIoT—ushers in a whole host of new services and businesses. For example, BIoT can be used to track shipments of pharmaceuticals and to create smart cities in which connected heating systems better controls energy use and connected traffic lights better manage rush hour.
2017
4 Technology Trends That Will Transform Our World in 2018
Fortune
Collaborative economy tools
Collaborative economy tools leverage the power of social networks and technology to promote new models of consumption, novel employment and income generation opportunities.
2016
Ten Frontier Technologies for International Development
Institute of Development Studies (IDS)