Business executives understand the need of preparing for technology disruptions in the coming years. However, keeping up with emerging technologies, much alone grasping their intricacies and anticipating developments, is a daunting undertaking.
The CompTIA Emerging Technology Community
publishes an annual list of the top ten emerging technologies to assist
companies in finding their footing. What distinguishes this ranking is its
emphasis on "which new technologies have the most potential for near-term
corporate impact."
CompTIA's recommendations are included below, along
with a brief description of each technology and some potential
commercial applications.
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
General AI, a system that is self-aware and commands
intelligence comparable to that of a human, is the holy grail of artificial
intelligence development. These imaginary systems would be our intellectual
equals—at least until v2.0 comes out and we plummet to a distant second.
We had narrow AI before then, which are computers that
execute relatively particular jobs. That may appear to be overly narrow, yet
narrow AI already runs systems such as SPAM filters, Google Maps, and virtual
assistants like Siri. And its applications are expected to expand much further.
According to Max Tegmark, physicist and
machine-learning researcher, "what we're witnessing today is that machine
intelligence is spreading out a little bit from those tight peaks and become a
little broader."
Chatbots, logistics, self-driving vehicles, virtual nursing
assistants, tailored textbooks and instructors, and even artificial creativity
are just a few of the applications that narrow AI has the potential to enhance
or bring to light in the next years.
The Internet of Things with 5G
5G may not appear to be particularly fascinating.
What's more G when we already have 4G? The difference, though, will be
exponential. 5G networks might eventually be 100 times faster than 4G,
allowing many more devices to connect, lowering latency to near zero, and
giving more dependable signals.
This wireless technology will serve as the foundation
for the internet of things (IoT), which will extend the internet's
capabilities beyond computers and into a diverse variety of items, processes,
and surroundings. The Internet of Things is the foundational technology
enabling futuristic scenarios such as smart cities, robot-driven agriculture,
and self-driving highway systems.
For businesses, this one-two punch will keep current
trends going and propel them to the next level. Under the 5G paradigm, remote
offices become more reliable, and real-time data exchange of, say, live events
or desktop images becomes frictionless. The Internet of Things, on the other
hand, aids in the elimination of intermediate stages that stifle production.
Computing without a server
The term "serverless computing" is
misleading. It's hard to give computing resources without a real server
someplace, unless you use some very black arts. Instead, this technology more
effectively distributes those resources. No resources are allocated when an
application is not in use. When needed, computer power scales automatically.
Because of this technical revolution,
businesses no longer need to worry about infrastructure or reserving bandwidth,
which offers the golden ticket of ease of use and cost savings.
"One of the joys of this design is that you are
charged by the cloud provider only when a service runs," says Eric Knorr,
editor in chief of International Data Group Enterprise. You don't have
to pay for idle capacity—or even consider it. Essentially, the runtime stays
inactive until an event occurs, at which point the relevant function is
switched into the runtime and executed. So you may design a large, complicated
application without paying any expenses until it is executed."
Biometrics
A biometric system recognizes users based on
biological indicators such as their face, voice, or fingerprint. Many
individuals already have one or more of these on their computers and cell
phones, but as technology advances and becomes more common, the password
paradigm may be rendered obsolete.
Because most individuals use ineffective passwords,
use the same one for every account, and never update them, hackers usually only
need one hit to gain access to someone's personal and professional information.
Even individuals that use proper passwords may find it difficult to manage the
system.
For these reasons, biometrics provides
much-needed data security. A fingerprint is far more difficult to hack using
brute force than a password, and the complexity increases by orders of
magnitude when numerous markers are used in tandem.
Virtual/Augmented Reality
With hardware costs falling, computing power rising,
and high-profile firms like Google and Facebook entering the fray, virtual
reality's time may have arrived. Furthermore, the increasing acceptability of
augmented reality apps in smartphones may make such technology easier to market
in the future.
Microsoft Mesh and its competitors want to profit on
our new era of remote work. The idea is to integrate these "mixed-reality"
technologies to create virtual shared spaces for business teams to gather and
collaborate on projects.
And, according to Peter Diamandis, chairman and
CEO of the XPRIZE Foundation, this technology has the potential to change the
retail consumer experience. Customers might, for example, test on clothing or
sit in their amphitheatre seats before purchasing.
Blockchain
It might come as a surprise that Bitcoin, the
much-hyped cryptocurrency, did not make the cut. However, the blockchain, the
technology's online ledger, has surpassed the digital denomination as the
emerging commercial star.
A blockchain, as opposed to traditional,
centralized recordkeeping, is decentralized. The permanent record is
distributed across the system and is not stored in a single location. This
architecture makes it impossible to misplace or tamper with documents.
According to Elad Gil, a digital entrepreneur,
"[Blockchain] solutions are basically censorship proof or seizure
resistant." In other words, the government can't come and grab your asset
if you live in a nation with poor governance, or it means that no third party
can suddenly, inadvertently destroy your data, or you can't hack a third party
to access your data (though you can certainly attack a blockchain)."
This is why blockchain has piqued the interest of
enterprises that require record storage (i.e., all organizations). And the
possible applications are amazing. Hospitals might utilize blockchain to store
and exchange health records. It might serve as the foundation for a safe online
voting platform.
Quantum Computing
Quantum computing is defined as "the use of
collective features of quantum states, such as superposition and entanglement,
to conduct computation." In other words, it solves problems quicker and
more accurately—in certain circumstances, problems that riddle even current supercomputers.
While we shouldn't anticipate a quantum PC anytime
soon, we may expect quantum computers to serve as the foundation for the
aforementioned upcoming technologies. These machines are currently in use, and
IBM has declared intentions to construct a 1,000-qubit version by 2023, a
milestone that physicist Jay Gambetta told Science would mark an
"inflection point."
Adoption of this technology has the potential to make
huge data more manageable. It has the potential to reduce costly and difficult
development time through rapid simulations and to tackle multivariable
optimization issues with ease. Finally, it may make previously intractable
issues, such as those encountered in natural language processing,
comprehensible.
Quantum computing
also demonstrates the need of corporate leaders not developing tunnel vision.
Focusing on a single upcoming technology or future model puts your company's
survival at risk. It is not a matter of which technology will prevail, but of
the potentials that each technology presents and how they may interact.
"The innovation that these technologies will
deliver, especially when used in tandem, will be staggering over the next few
years and will enable customer solutions that will actually have paradigm
shifting impact for those that act on them," Mike Haines, chair of
the Emerging Technology Community's executive council, said on the CompTIABiz Tech podcast.
Navigating these technology advancements will undoubtedly be a challenge for corporate executives for many years to come. They may, however, plan a course that forecasts threat and capitalizes on future technology by keeping an open mind to the possibilities.
Social Plugin