Trends Identified

Natural-resource scarcity
Natural-resource scarcity affecting water, food supplies, energy, and minerals. Also changes in demand and technological innovations.
2016
Why and how latin america should think about the future
theDialogue
Demographic changes and displacement of power
Demographic changes and displacement of power, new markets, rising middle classes, and migration.
2016
Why and how latin america should think about the future
theDialogue
Urbanization and growth of cities
Urbanization and growth of cities, population concentration, demands for infrastructure and basic services, quality of life, and competitiveness of cities.
2016
Why and how latin america should think about the future
theDialogue
Climate change
Climate change, its effect on agriculture, “green-growth” opportunities, citizen awareness, and behavioral change.
2016
Why and how latin america should think about the future
theDialogue
Democratic governability
Democratic governability, impact of new technologies
in connecting citizens, forging social relations, improving transparency, strengthening security, and providing opportunities for organized crime and cyber-attacks.
2016
Why and how latin america should think about the future
theDialogue
Industry redefined
Is every industry now your industry? Industry — the concept and the reality — is being rede ned and reinvented. In the pre-internet era, the competencies, assets and knowledge necessary to participate in any given industry sector were unique and varied significantly from industry to industry. Hard and fast industry boundaries (and high barriers to entry) arose as a result. With digital innovation and other forces acting as solvents, industry boundaries are melting and disappearing.
2018
What’s after what’s next? The upside of disruption Megatrends shaping 2018 and beyond
EY
Future of work
When machines become workers, what is the human role? When EY first wrote about the future of work in our 2016 Megatrends report, the topic was just starting to attract attention. Skeptics doubted predictions about massive disruptions of labor by AI and robots. Now, we are overwhelmed with analyses of the future of work from the mainstream press, business literature and consultants. Predictions that seemed distant two years ago are entering the real world — from the live- testing of autonomous ride-sharing in key cities to the opening of the world’s first fully automated retail outlet, the Amazon Go store in Seattle.
2018
What’s after what’s next? The upside of disruption Megatrends shaping 2018 and beyond
EY
Super consumer
When humans are augmented by AI, who gains the most — consumers or brands? We expect the evolution and interplay of AI, machine learning, ever-present sensors, smart devices and new computing interfaces to take consumer empowerment to a whole new level — giving rise to tomorrow’s super consumer. A little like the fictional superheroes of comic books, super consumers can be defined as those who embrace new technologies, such as AI, VR, wearables and robotics, to create smarter and more powerful extensions of themselves. Whether working, playing, eating, shopping, learning or pursuing healthier lifestyles, tomorrow’s super consumers will be augmented by technology (see Human augmentation) in the service of achieving more informed and rich experiences across these different categories of living.
2018
What’s after what’s next? The upside of disruption Megatrends shaping 2018 and beyond
EY
Behavioral design
How will insights from psychology improve the partnership between humans and new technologies? The relationship between design and behavior has never been more important than in the era of human augmentation..This link has been increasingly visible in recent years. The launch of Google Glass fizzled partly because of people’s fears of being surreptitiously recorded. Smartphone and social media addictions are rising because manufacturers have designed for irresistibility. Understanding how design motivates behavior will become even more important with human augmentation. As AI, robots and other technologies become increasingly lifelike and enter spaces that have so far been exclusively in the human domain, they will trigger deep-seated human biases. Leaders must attend to the implications of behavioral design for everything, from customer engagement (see Super consumer) to fears about automation to the outcome of elections.
2018
What’s after what’s next? The upside of disruption Megatrends shaping 2018 and beyond
EY
Adaptive regulation
How could regulation be responsive to rapid change and an unknowable future? Regulation can be a contentious issue. Critics argue — often justifiably so — that it is onerous, inefficient and an impediment to innovation. But, imagine an entirely different approach. Imagine a future in which consumer safety is protected not by monitoring regulatory compliance and penalizing infractions, but by using big data and algorithms to prevent breaches before they can even occur. Imagine regulations that rewrite themselves to keep up with ever-changing market conditions. Imagine regulation conducted jointly by industry and regulators — a collaborative, rather than contentious, exercise. This is where things are headed. The future of regulation is adaptive. The reason for this shift is disruptive innovation. On one hand, disruptive technologies and business models are straining existing regulatory approaches and making them unsustainable. On the other, these technologies are creating opportunities to conduct regulation in an entirely new way.
2018
What’s after what’s next? The upside of disruption Megatrends shaping 2018 and beyond
EY