Trends Identified

3D printing opens up amazing opportunities for manufacturers (and others)

Related to increasing automation, the invention of 3D printing is disrupting manufacturing, and other industries, in many positive ways. In traditional (subtractive) manufacturing, objects are cut or hollowed out of material, such as metal, using something like a cutting tool. But in 3D printing (also known as additive manufacturing), the object is created by laying down, or adding, layers of material. The materials used in 3D printing can be pretty much anything: plastic, metal, concrete, liquid, powder, even chocolate or human tissue! With 3D printing, far more complex shapes can be created than in traditional manufacturing – and using less material, too. It also allows for much greater customization of products, without worrying about economies of scale.

2017

9 Technology Mega Trends That Will Change The World In 2018

Forbes

Apply the science of organizational change

Reinventing organizations to compete in the 2020s will not be a trivial task. Whether because of risk aversion or complacency stemming from today’s increasingly concentrated industries and elevated profitability levels, leading companies may be understandably reluctant to unleash fundamental change preemptively. But our research shows that the single biggest factor influencing the success of major change programs is how early they are initiated. It is therefore critical to create a sense of urgency within the organization to ensure that everyone truly understands the need for change. Even for companies that are committed to such transformation, it can be a risky endeavor: our research shows that most large-scale change efforts fail. Therefore, leaders need to employ evidence-based transformation—understanding empirically what works and why, rather than relying on plausible assertions and rules of thumb. In an era when many powerful forces are revolutionizing how organizations function, building repeatable transformation capabilities will be more important than ever. Leaders also need to de-average and differentiate their approaches to change. Large-scale transformation programs comprise multiple change challenges, from exploring new fields and approaches, to adaptively refining new models, to implementing structured change with clear objectives and means. Leaders will need to diversify their approaches to change accordingly, moving beyond the monolithic programs centered only on PMOs and Gantt charts. By adopting continuous change as the default, episodic change programs will give way to change as an ongoing operating imperative.

2018

Winning the ’20s: A Leadership Agenda for the Next Decade

Boston Consulting Group (BCG)

Social Business

Reimagining business with a social mindset Even today, business leaders may dismiss the potential of social business, either relegating it to the realm of Internet marketing or ignoring the buzz as a passing fad. But that’s changing as boomers evolve into digital natives, millennials permeate the workforce and social media becomes a part of daily life. The doors are now open for social business.

2012

Tech Trends 2012-Elevate IT for digital business

Deloitte

Walled Off

Regulatory, cybersecurity and protectionist concerns lead to the fragmentation of the internet

2018

The Global Risks Report 2018

World Economic Forum (WEF)

An ECG on your wrist

Regulatory approval and technological advances are making it easier for people to continuously monitor their hearts with wearable devices. Fitness trackers aren’t serious medical devices. An intense workout or loose band can mess with the sensors that read your pulse. But an electrocardiogram—the kind doctors use to diagnose abnormalities before they cause a stroke or heart attack— requires a visit to a clinic, and people often fail to take the test in time. ECG-enabled smart watches, made possible by new regulations and innovations in hardware and software, offer the convenience of a wearable device with something closer to the precision of a medical one. An Apple Watch–compatible band from Silicon Valley startup AliveCor that can detect atrial fibrillation, a frequent cause of blood clots and stroke, received clearance from the FDA in 2017. Last year, Apple released its own FDA-cleared ECG feature, embedded in the watch itself. The health-device company Withings also announced plans for an ECG-equipped watch shortly after. Current wearables still employ only a single sensor, whereas a real ECG has 12. And no wearable can yet detect a heart attack as it’s happening. But this might change soon. Last fall, AliveCor presented preliminary results to the American Heart Association on an app and two-­sensor system that can detect a certain type of heart attack. —Karen Hao

2019

10 Breakthrough Technologies 2019 - How we’ll invent the future, by Bill Gates

MIT Technology Review

Cryptographic technologies are ensuring data integrity

Regulations such as GDPR in Europe and the misuse of personal information on social media highlight the importance of trust in a system where data is shared between different parties. Yet data needs to be protected in a way that adds value to the end user. Financial firms’ data is often shared internally and externally. Many workflows are regulated, and firms must follow a proof of process when it comes to the custody and provenance of data. They must demonstrate to auditors, regulators and customers that systems are functioning as prescribed, workflows are completely auditable, repeatable and immutable, and measures are established to prevent security breaches. Data lineage, a data lifecycle that includes the data’s origins and where it moves over time, is becoming more critical and can become a competitive advantage. A recent trend is to leverage cryptographic libraries, public key infrastructure, blockchain and zero knowledge proofs to record who did what, when and where in workflows in an immutable, persistent, auditable and impermeable fashion. These technologies ensure integrity starting with the first person who enters data through all its transfers and transformations. Potential applications include managing the publication of earnings reports, anti-money-laundering and know-yourcustomer compliance, risk and surveillance. The technologies could also help to improve customer service. For example, money that is held captive on margin could be freed up by allowing a prime broker and executing broker to contribute data to a secure multiparty compute service that calculates a credit score. That could help to reduce the margin requirement. The technologies could be used to create a certificate authority in the cloud, so users could verify that the service that they are about to run came from the correct source and was unmodified in transit. Together, they could also be used as a formative technology to create a data marketplace where the fidelity, integrity and lineage is guaranteed. A zero knowledge proof is a severable technology, allowing for secure multiparty computation to occur. Let’s say two people each have a dataset that neither wants to share. But they would like a mechanism so they can contribute those datasets into a piece of compute that would transform it privately into a result that both people would find mutually beneficial. This technology would prevent data sharing, and the result would redact all information that would prescribe the origin, who owned it, or any details of it. One can imagine valuable use cases in research and development work across many industries and functions including healthcare clinical trials and supply chain management.

2019

NASDAQ DECODES: TECH TRENDS 2019 -The technology trends that are driving the world of markets forward

Nasdaq

Land registries based on Geographic Information Systems

Registers developed on the basis of geographic information systems are a system for quantitative and qualitative information on the state of natural resources, their economic and social value, as well as the breakdown and categories of users. All registers contain explicit and implicit spatial data; however, under the existing system the accumulation and storage of information on their “spatiality” is not in any way used in the procedures of services connected with the extraction and comparison of information stored in multiple registers. The creation of registers based on integrated GIS platforms will reduce the time taken to provide a service to a few minutes (currently, in Russian departments it can take days or weeks). During their development, there may be potential to allow for integration into other GIS platforms and databases. Moreover, keeping registers will open up a broad range of analytical capabilities and will become a key factor in the development of state and municipal services on an entirely different level.

2016

Russia 2030: science and technology foresight

Russia, Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation

Regenerative medicine and tissue engineering

Regenerative medicine has developed from new scientific discoveries, notably in the stem cell field. It offers hope for life-threatening or untreatable diseases, such as Parkinson's or Huntington's disease, and provides new approaches to treat diseases with serious societal impact, such as diabetes, and for the ageing population.

2015

Preparing the Commission for future opportunities - Foresight network fiches 2030

European Strategy and Policy Analysis System (ESPAS)

Advanced Domestic Waste Sorting and Recycling System

Recycling technology which categorizes waste materials into metal, plastic, paper, etc., maximizing recycling and waste-to-energy recovery

2017

10 emerging technologies in 2017

South Korea, Korea Institute of S&T Evaluation and Planning (KISTEP)

Solar and wind may become cost-effective

Recently, there have been significant improvements in both solar and wind technologies, including cheap printing processes for solar panels. Many science sources suggest that solar and wind energy may become the most cost-effective choice for new electricity generation in many locations within 15 years. As solar and wind have become more affordable, massive research and venture capital has been going into battery storage for homes, buildings and vehicles. Effective and economical battery storage is on the horizon. It is the key enabling technology to ensure that buildings using renewable energy are powered during cloudy and windless days.

2013

Metascan 3 emerging technologies

Canada, Policy Horizons Canada