Trends Identified

Food by design
Can innovation align delicious with sustainable, affordable and healthy? The US$5 trillion global food industry is experiencing the cross-currents of disruption. Food companies deliver mass products from far-flung supply chains even as consumers demand local, transparently sourced, personalized foods. Agriculture generates 24% of greenhouse gases, consumes 70% of fresh water† and occupies nearly 40%‡ of the global landmass. Climate change and population growth render this kind of resource consumption increasingly untenable. The diffusion of the modern western diet contributes to a variety of global health problems, such as heart disease, cancer and diabetes. More people now suffer from obesity§ than from malnutrition. Innovations at the intersections of food, biotech, wellness and digital are emerging from these cross-currents to design new ways to eat.
2018
What’s after what’s next? The upside of disruption Megatrends shaping 2018 and beyond
EY
Molecular economy
Nature is clean, efficient and distributed — why is manufacturing not so? There is a revolution in the making. In 2017, IBM Research discovered a way to store one bit of digital information in a single atom*, a density that would allow the storage of Apple’s entire 26-million-song music catalog on a device the size of a coin. Researchers at the UK’s Durham University used light-activated motorized molecules† to drill into cancer cells, destroying them in 60 seconds; animal testing will follow. And, Dubai wants to 3-D-print 25% of its new buildings‡ by 2030. In this revolution, physical, digital and biologic systems converge to create clean, efficient and distributed production processes.
2018
What’s after what’s next? The upside of disruption Megatrends shaping 2018 and beyond
EY
Human augmentation
Technology has always augmented human capabilities. So far, this has been relatively passive: assisting humans in performing tasks. We are now on the cusp of human augmentation that is qualitatively different. For the rst time, technology will take an active role, working alongside us and directly on our behalf. The next wave of disruptive technologies, which are rapidly coming of age, are driving this change. They include AI, augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), sensors and blockchain. These breakthroughs are in turn generating new products and services, such as AVs, drones, robots and wearables.
2018
What’s after what’s next? The upside of disruption Megatrends shaping 2018 and beyond
EY
Populism
For the last seven decades, globalization has marched forward uninterrupted. The Bretton Woods Institutions and multiple subsequent free trade agreements ushered in an era of trade liberalization and global supply chains, trends that helped lift more than one billion people out of poverty. In 2016, that inexorable forward-march hit a major roadblock when back-to-back election results gave us Brexit and President Trump, bringing populism and anti-globalization to the forefront. While populism had been ascendant in numerous countries before this — from Poland and Hungary to Bolivia and the Philippines — these elections brought such political philosophies to two of the world’s largest economies.
2018
What’s after what’s next? The upside of disruption Megatrends shaping 2018 and beyond
EY
engaged aging
The world is getting older. Life expectancy has gone from 34 in 1913 to 67 at the turn of the millennium. By 2020, for the rst time in human history, the world’s population of people aged 65 and older will exceed the number of children under the age of ve. And, the World Economic Forum estimates that the global cost of chronic diseases — driven largely by aging populations — will total US$47 trillion* between 2010 and 2030. If demographics are destiny, it’s not hard to read what those numbers imply for our collective future. Forget the millennials for a moment. The much bigger disruption is what’s about to happen at the other end of the demographic distribution: aging populations across much of the world. These trends threaten to overwhelm health care and pension systems, draining public coffers and crowding out other societal priorities, from education to defense.
2018
What’s after what’s next? The upside of disruption Megatrends shaping 2018 and beyond
EY
Citizen AI - Raising AI to Benefit Business and Society
As artificial intelligence grows in its capabilities—and its impact on people’s lives—businesses must move to “raise” their AIs to act as responsible, productive members of society.
2018
Accenture Technology vision 2018
Accenture
Extended Reality -The End of Distance
Virtual and augmented reality technologies are removing the distance to people, information, and experiences, transforming the ways people live and work.
2018
Accenture Technology vision 2018
Accenture
Data Veracity- The Importance of Trust
By transforming themselves to run on data, businesses have created a new kind of vulnerability: inaccurate, manipulated, and biased data that leads to corrupted business insights, and skewed decisions with a major impact on society.
2018
Accenture Technology vision 2018
Accenture
Frictionless Business - Built to Partner at Scale
Businesses depend on technology-based partnerships for growth, but their own legacy systems aren’t designed to support partnerships at scale. To fully power the connected Intelligent Enterprise, companies must first re-architect themselves.
2018
Accenture Technology vision 2018
Accenture
Internet of thinking- Creating Intelligent Distributed Systems
Businesses are making big bets on intelligent environments via robotics, AI and immersive experiences. But to bring these intelligent environments to life, they must extend their infrastructures into the dynamic, real-world environments they want to reach.
2018
Accenture Technology vision 2018
Accenture