Trends Identified

Social Reengineering by Design
Shaking off the business constraints of 19th century platforms. Modern corporations owe their structure and operating models to the birth of the industrial age, where bureaucracy, hierarchy, and specialization of labor were paramount for efficiencies and scale. Clearly defined roles and responsibilities, strict processes, and a “C3” (command, control, and communications) mentality are tenets of the model prescribed by Max Weber, adjusted by Henry Ford, and refined by Michael Hammer. Many businesses have found success in the model. But current business practices constrain individual responsibility, accountability, and capability. Sometimes that’s due to real or perceived boundaries of a specific job. Often it’s because people are simply unable to navigate the organization – find the right information, specialists, or decision makers to grow ideas, build relationships with people with similar interests, or effectively work together in a multinational, matrix reporting environment. Compare that with the intended goals of social business1: to amplify individual passions, experience, and relationships for the benefit of the enterprise – invisible connections and characteristics within the physical manifestation of our organizations. Aligning the interests of the individual with the mission of the business and every other employee, while harnessing universal qualities of individual worth: content, authenticity, integrity, reputation, commitment, and reliability. The real potential of social business involves breaking down barriers that limit human potential and business performance. But it requires fundamentally rethinking how work gets done and how value is created in the Postdigital era – social reengineering of the business.
2013
Tech Trends 2013 Elements of postdigital
Deloitte
Social Robots
(Definition) Machine and software which increases emotional satisfaction by fulfilling the mental and physical needs of human users through interacting with the user in daily life. (Application) Various personal services for emotional dependence or bonding through empathy; treatment of mental illness (dementia, autism, etc.); emotional stability support for the underprivileged; and emotional ICT-based products and services.
2016
KISTEP 10 Emerging Technologies 2016
South Korea, Korea Institute of S&T Evaluation and Planning (KISTEP)
Social sciences and humanities
Innovation in the service sector (75% of the EU economy) and social innovation are largely dependent from findings in Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH). SSH also allow understanding the changing multicultural, multi-ethnic and multi-religious European societies faced by issues like inequalities, including gender inequalities, and ageing of population. SSH as such and SSH integrated in interdisciplinary research (e.g. on health, climate change and food) play a key role in long-term EU growth and quality of life. 50% of tertiary graduate students in Europe are coming from social sciences and humanities.
2015
Preparing the Commission for future opportunities - Foresight network fiches 2030
European Strategy and Policy Analysis System (ESPAS)
Social Unrest
As political and ethnic groups have become more empowered, there has been a resurgence of civil and social rights issues calling for change or reform (e.g., Pegida, student protests in Mexico, the Occupy Wall Street movement, the anti-GMO movement, Black Lives Matter, gender pay discrimination, LGBT rights and Planned Parenthood).
2017
Beyond the Noise- The Megatrends of Tomorrow’s World
Deloitte
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
Society
The future will see striking changes in family and household structures in OECD countries with significant increases in one-person households and couples without children. Access to education and acquisition of skills will be one of the most important keys to improving life chances. Growth in female enrolment at all levels of education will continue, and will have important implications for labour markets and family life. The global population will be increasingly urban, with 90% of this growth occurring in Asia and Africa. Urbanisation could bring several benefits to developing countries, including better access to electricity, water and sanitation. But it could also lead to extensive slum formation with negative consequences for human health and the environment.
2016
OECD Science, Technology and Innovation Outlook 2016
OECD
Society and Conflict in a Changing Global Environment
Our strategic environment is changing rapidly. We live in a world that is at once more connected, contested and complex. The fragile societies, instability and conflict which we meet in many parts of our neighbourhood and beyond also have consequences for our internal security and prosperity. To take account of the new global context, our approach to conflict must also change. Greater connectivity is both an asset as it drives communication, trade and mobility, but also makes us vulnerable to cross border crime, terrorism, global pandemics and cyber-attacks. The rise in human mobility compels us to rethink our approach to migration, sustainable development, security and governance.
2016
Shaping the future
European Strategy and Policy Analysis System (ESPAS)
Society and social trends
Just as population trends over a 20-year period tend to move quite slowly (with notable exceptions such as immigration) and are not on the aggregate susceptible to abrupt major changes of direction, societal trends also tend to develop their own momentum and can prove quite difficult to defect from past and current trajectories. The expansion of higher education, the growing participation of women in the labour market and the rising numbers of dependent elderly all seem set to become a permanent feature of the next couple of decades, although their combined effect on family formation, family interaction and intergenerational relations is hard to foresee. Conversely, future patterns of marriage and divorce or labour market participation among the elderly have the potential to spring some surprises in the years ahead.
2011
The Future of Families to 2030
OECD
Soft Robot Technology
[Definition] Robots manufactured with soft and flexible material, in contrast to traditional robots made with hard and rigid material. [Application]. Offers better flexibility and shock resistance compared to normal robots built with steel, and can be used in a more diverse environments which require physical interaction with humans.
2018
KISTEP 10 Emerging Technologies 2018
South Korea, Korea Institute of S&T Evaluation and Planning (KISTEP)
Software to analyse statistical macromolecular markers
Software systems to analyse static (contextual) macromolecular markers will make it possible to carry out more in-depth genetic diagnostics (primarily for hereditary and orphan diseases). The expansion of the market for this product group will contribute to minimising the analytical processes in clinical laboratories and the emergence of specific personalised approaches to diagnostics. New systems which do not require expensive equipment and components could successfully compete with mass spectrometers and other modern analytical techniques.
2016
Russia 2030: science and technology foresight
Russia, Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation