Trends Identified
Fight or Flight
Rapidly growing cities are making more people vulnerable to rising sea levels. Two-thirds of the global population is expected to live in cities by 2050. Already an estimated 800 million people in more than 570 coastal cities are vulnerable to a sea-level rise of 0.5 metres by 2050.1 In a vicious circle, urbanization not only concentrates people and property in areas of potential damage and disruption, but it also exacerbates those risks—for example, by destroying natural sources of resilience such as coastal mangroves and increasing the strain on groundwater reserves. The risks of rising sea levels are often compounded by storm surges and increased rainfall intensity.
2019
The Global Risks Report 2019 14th Edition
World Economic Forum (WEF)
Fewer, but more productive, workers
Artificial intelligence (AI), sensors, data analytics and robots will drive significant change in many workplaces in Canada and around the world.
These technologies will transform many jobs where a routine physical or mental task is repeated;
AI will increasingly handle the routine, while workers will be free to focus on the exceptions that AI cannot handle. AI and data analytics will also increase productivity and the demand for non-routine and professional skills by reframing the way we design, coordinate, manage, deliver and assess products and services. Sensors will provide workers with a much broader picture of the processes they manage, improving efficiency and client satisfaction. Cheaper, mass-produced robots and autonomous delivery vehicles will change the flow, timing and flexibility of work. Working conditions and on-the-job safety will greatly improve for dangerous professions, largely through the use of sensors, drones and robots in fields such as mining, policing and rescue missions.
2013
Metascan 3 emerging technologies
Canada, Policy Horizons Canada
Fewer fancy phones, more fulfilment
The world many of us live in is changing at an exciting pace. Innovations are generating new gadgets, more convenient services and greater opportunities. But many of these changes target a small percentage of the globe’s population. In the villages I’ve worked in, nobody has seen an iPhone or can download an app. However, there is tremendous room for entrepreneurs to adapt innovations intended for the wealthy to serve the world’s poor. Solar panels and LED lights, designed for sale in rich nations, are stimulating growth in commercial off-grid electrification in India and Africa. Mobile telecommunication is being used to facilitate financial inclusion in developing countries across the world. Once-expensive medical procedures can be done amazingly cheaply. Even the financial sector is innovating in order to reach the world’s poor; as well as investors looking for opportunities that not only help them increase their net worth but also improve the world. Better financing opportunities are opening up for social entrepreneurs who build businesses to serve the poor profitably. I see a slight but significant shift in innovation, that instead of producing fancier phones, we will create more fulfilling lives for people who have been mostly ignored to date.
2014
14 tech predictions for our world in 2020
World Economic Forum (WEF)
Few companies can maintain pricing power these days.
Few companies can maintain pricing power these days. Technology has allowed for easy comparison shopping, increasingly efficient production and shifts in certain business models that can erode pricing power. However, companies that can maintain pricing power through technological barriers, unique products and brand recognition should be able to maintain an advantage.
2018
Eight long-term trends for growth investors
Morgan Stanley
Feeding the future
How will the world feed a population projected to grow from 7.6 billion in 2017 to 9.8 billion in 2050? Climate change will accentuate weather volatility and the amount of arable land is projected to decline from 0.23 hectares per person in 2000 to 0.15 by 2050 due to environmentally unsound practices. Precision agriculture and biotechnology are promising solutions for achieving sustainable and stable food production. Reflecting this view, investment in agriculture technology grew, on average, 63% yearly from 2010–2015. In smart farms, moisture sensors in the soil are linked to the farm’s irrigation and humidity systems, while operations like weeding and harvesting are performed by agri-bots. With farming processes mirroring tightly-controlled factory operations, food production could become more stable, efficient and cost-effective.
2017
Foresigth
Singapore, The Centre for Strategic Futures
Fast charging/ discharging battery for transport
(Definition) Lithium secondary battery technology that significantly reduces charging duration of EV batteries, which currently takes about 6 hours for full charge, while improving power output characteristics. (Use) Available to travel to the destination by an EV that is fully charged while having a coffee with refreshments thanks to the development/ commercialization of fast charging lithium rechargeable batteries without loss to energy density or performance.
2019
KISTEP 10 Emerging Technologies 2019
South Korea, Korea Institute of S&T Evaluation and Planning (KISTEP)
Fashion: 'Technology creates smarter clothes'
Fashion is such an important part of the way in which we communicate our identity to others, and for a very long time it's meant dress: the textile garments on our body. But in the coming decades, I think there'll be much more emphasis on other manifestations of fashion and different ways of communicating with each other, different ways of creating a sense of belonging and of making us feel great about ourselves. We're already designing our identities online – manipulating imagery to tell a story about ourselves. Instead of meeting in the street or in a bar and having a conversation and looking at what each other is wearing, we're communicating in some depth through these new channels. With clothing, I think it's possible that we'll see a polarisation between items that are very practical and those that are very much about display – and maybe these are not things that you own but that you borrow or share.Technology is already being used to create clothing that fits better and is smarter; it is able to transmit a degree of information back to you. This is partly driven by customer demand and the desire to know where clothing comes from – so we'll see tags on garments that tell you where every part of it was made, and some of this, I suspect, will be legislation-driven, too, for similar reasons, particularly as resources become scarcer and it becomes increasingly important to recognise water and carbon footprints. However, it's not simply an issue of functionality. Fashion's gone through a big cycle in the last 25 years – from being something that was treasured and cherished to being something that felt disposable, because of a drop in prices. In fact, we've completely changed our relationship towards clothes and there's a real feeling among designers who I work with that they're trying to work back into their designs an element of emotional content. I think there's definitely a place for technology in creating a dialogue with you through your clothes.
2011
20 predictions for the next 25 years
The Guardian
Farewell hospital, hello home-spital
Technology will have further disrupted disease, writes Melanie Walker, a medical doctor and World Bank advisor. The hospital as we know it will be on its way out, with fewer accidents thanks to self-driving cars and great strides in preventive and personalised medicine. Scalpels and organ donors are out, tiny robotic tubes and bio-printed organs are in.
2016
Eight predictions for 2030
World Economic Forum (WEF)
Fake news
The 2016 election not only brought up concerns about cybersecurity, but there has also been widespread debate about the impact of fake news on social media – both in the presidential contest and beyond. Over the last year, social media companies have looked into new ways to address this issue.
2017
Key trends shaping technology in 2017
Pew Research Center
Failure As A Service?
Just as we saw the as-a-Service market continue to grow with software, infrastructure, and — just about everything else — failure will soon be a service on the aaS menu. The reason: failing fast is one of the most important elements of success in today’s quick-moving digital transformation environment. Failure-as-a-Service (FaaS) will provide visualization, rapid prototyping, and other fast fail methods that will help companies strategize fast for greater success. It’s a bit speculative to say it will be called “Failure-as-a-service,” but the ability to more quickly recognize when something isn’t working and move on will be a key differentiator between the winners and losers of digital transformation.
2016
Top 10 trends for digital transformation in 2018
Forbes