Trends Identified
Globalization
The liberalization of global economic policy has opened borders, supply chains, and trade patterns, creating impacts in one country or region that affect or cascade to others, based on market activity.
2017
Beyond the Noise- The Megatrends of Tomorrow’s World
Deloitte
Global unemployment remains elevated at more than 190 million
The latest developments in global unemployment are also mixed. According to the ILO’s new estimation, based on improved data sets and methodologies, the global unemployment rate is expected to fall slightly to 5.5 per cent in 2018 (from 5.6 per cent in 2017), marking a turnaround after three years of rising unemployment rates. However, with a growing number of people entering the labour market to seek employment, the total number of unemployed is expected to remain stable in 2018, above 192 million. In 2019, the global unemployment rate is expected to remain essentially unchanged, whereas the number of unemployed is projected to grow by 1.3 million.
2018
World Employment and Social Outlook
International Labour Organization (ILO)
Demographic changes
The last few decades have experienced social change on a remarkable scale. In particular there have been extraordinary gains in longevity in developed countries, with average life expectancy at birth rising from 66 years in 1950 to just over 76 years in 2007 (United Nations 2007). This has had, and will continue to have, far-reaching implications for the composition of families. Meanwhile, the last few decades have also seen signi cant falls in fertility rates. Birth rates have declined sharply across developed countries generally. In 1950, the total fertility rate (TFR), i.e. the average number of children being born per woman, was 2.8, but by 2007 the TFR had fallen to 1.6, leaving many OECD countries well below the fertility rate of 2.1 per woman needed to replace the population at a constant level.
2011
The Future of Families to 2030
OECD
Strategic Foresight: a Mechanism for Stakeholder Mutuality
The last decade was marked by a fundamental misalignment between the global economic system and the societies which it is expected to serve, between political systems that must enable prosperity and progress and the rising expectations of voters. This is at the heart of the social upheaval, rising populism and the declining trust in institutions seen in many western democracies.
2016
Shaping the future
European Strategy and Policy Analysis System (ESPAS)
The global marketplace
The landscape of trade in goods and services has fundamentally changed since the Second World War, as the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) shepherded in a more open and connected global economy. Today there are nearly 160 members of GATT’s successor, the World Trade Organization (WTO). From 1950– 2007 trade grew by an average of 6.2 percent per year.52 In 2011 the total value of world merchandise trade was estimated at USD$18.2 trillion.53 Developing countries achieved a share of over 50 percent of global trade in 2012.
2013
Now for the long term - The Report of the Oxford Martin Commission for Future Generations
Oxford Martin School
Voice Assistants Become a Service-Led Market
The key opportunity here is for voice assistant providers and their partners to use the platforms to deliver a range of digital services. This follows the somewhat lacklustre uptake of voice commerce, and will provide a firmer basis for monetisation of a rapidly growing platform; Juniper expects 93 million smart speakers to be in use by the end of 2019, providing a large base for the use of these products. We expect these to be used in 9% of households worldwide by the end of 2019, reaching over 40% in some developed markets. While these devices have been rapidly adopted, they have not become the payment and commerce gateways some had hoped for. Instead, we expect vendors to turn to services as a means of monetising the platforms and further differentiate between voice assistant ecosystems, locking people into hardware. The biggest name in the market so far has been Amazon, and following the recent explosion in Echo devices, we expect the company to further differentiate between Echo and Alexa devices. This means that their own version of the voice assistant will become more appealing; forcing other manufacturers to compete by offering hardware-linked services in other areas, such as premium music subscriptions and other types of service. We expect software providers to benefit the most from this, as speaker hardware vendors will seek out premium deals to drive hardware sales; allowing the software providers to upsell existing users more easily. We also expect Amazon’s hardware sales to increase further, as difference between Echo and Alexa becomes more apparent, driving up sales throughout the year. As a result, Juniper expects more granular speaker-based services to be offered, both by software providers and speaker makers. Gating off content in this way will increase ecosystem lock-in and encourage further spending from smart speaker users. Related Research: Smart Audio Devices: Strategies & Forecasts 2017-2022
2019
Top Tech trends 2019
Juniper Research
3D printing
The IoT and fine dining are increasingly crossing paths via 3D printing. Anything which can be liquidized, in theory, can form an ink which, layer by layer, amounts to a meal. And this has implications for customizing nutrients, liquidizing the unappealing. The process still takes a while — especially when cooling time is included. Moreover, the necessity of creating a cartridge for every different food group means additional costs and complexities. However, while to date 3D-printed food has found a foothold primarily in the more expensive restaurants, it is beginning to cross over into the mainstream.
2017
How we eat now: five disruptive food trends
EY
The Internet of Things (IoT) and how everyday devices are becoming more ‘smart’
The IoT – which encompasses smart, connected products like smart phones and smart watches –is a major contributing factor in this exponential increase in data. That’s because all these smart devices are constantly gathering data, connecting to other devices and sharing that data – all without human intervention (your Fitbit synching data to your phone, for instance). Pretty much anything can be made smart these days. Our cars are becoming increasingly connected; by 2020, a quarter of a billion cars will be hooked up to the Internet. For our homes, there are obvious smart products like TVs, and less obvious ones, like yoga mats that track your Downward Dog. And, of course, many of us have voice-enabled personal assistants like Alexa – another example of an IoT device. That’s already a lot of devices, but the IoT is just getting started. IHS has predicted there’ll be 75 billion connected devices by 2020.
2017
9 Technology Mega Trends That Will Change The World In 2018
Forbes
Remote monitoring systems including using satellite systems
The introduction of remote monitoring systems using satellite systems will ensure that qualitatively new information on the state of the land, land based installations, and natural and anthropogenic processes is available. These data will serve as the primary source to create up-to-date thematic maps. Aside from this, prospective remote surveying technologies and computer data processing technologies vastly exceed the capabilities of traditional cartography both in terms of content and the diversity of the methods used to present the data.
2016
Russia 2030: science and technology foresight
Russia, Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation
Drugs based on living cells
The introduction of medicines based on living cells (autologous, donor, primary, cultivated, differentiated and modified) will form a basis for cell therapy and tissue engineering for transplanting stem cells into certain parts of the body, as well as equivalents engineered on the basis of stem cells, which could be able to restore the structure and functions of damaged tissues and organs. Technologies to obtain stem cells from patient tissues will make it possible to make treatment materials within a matter of hours. The techniques used to selectively cultivate and differentiate this type of cell will allow for rapid and effective treatments for various pathologies. A new and fundamental property of these technologies is the complete compatibility of the stem cells taken from the patient’s own differentiated tissues with the patient’s body. In this regard, it is possible to rule out infections: the cells have reduced (compared with embryonic) capabilities to differentiate into unwanted directions.
2016
Russia 2030: science and technology foresight
Russia, Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation