2017 is nearing to an end and we are at the last quarter of the year. With time, technology has been awing us with extremely innovative come backs that are stripped off sci-fi movies. Advances in technology has been growing with time. Starting from Bluetooth technology discovered in the year 1999, all the way to Artificial intelligence in 2017, technology is starting to make use of the smallest source of energy, including the air around us. The potential economic impact of technology is predicted to be extremely high by the year 2025. There may come a time when a phone call would mean digital images of people popping out of phones, communicating with each other. 2017 has been an eventful year, of course. What’s in store for us in 2018? Let’s find out!

1. Internet Of Things

IoT (Internet of Things) has made a huge difference in our world, particularly internet of things in healthcare, by allowing machines to communicate with each other and by allowing us to communicate with machines directly. With electronic devices, embedded with sensors, IoT connects objects and facilitates exchange of data. The concept of IoT became extremely popular in 1999. It is estimated that around 10 billion objects will involve IoT by 2018. Apple has brought in the ‘Home’ application where the Apple watch or iPhone would be able to interact with home appliances. Who knew that switching on and off lights and fans could be as easy as walking into the room?

2. Advanced Robotics

Movies like I Robot, Terminator, Transformers and more were only graphical animations, until today. The humanoid robot first came into existence in the early 20th century. With time, robots evolved through the years, to help with automatic car driving, restaurant delivery services, complex industry services and artificial intelligence. Artificial mimics of humans are now becoming a trend and it is predicted that robots are highly capable of replacing humans in very short time.

3. Automation 

Automation has occupied the headlines of newspapers recently, as it is predicted that around 70% of the IT industry is moving towards unemployment. Technology insisted that we bid good bye to manual calculations, man power and time-consuming report generations. With newer software and programming languages introduced with time, all IT processes and services are heading towards automation. Accounting software replaced accountants, self-driving cars replaced drivers and chatbots replaced customer service reps. The car manufacturing industry is excited to see Automatic guided vehicles (AGV) as they plan on automating the entire manufacturing plants. In the healthcare industry, the medical instruments such as CT scans, X-ray machines and more seem to be 50% more efficient than actual human predictions. Are we marching towards a machine-dominated world? Maybe we are.

4. Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality 

AR and VR applications on new generation mobiles are becoming a trend as these apps allow individuals to interact with the real-world environment. By incorporating elements in the real-world that can only be seen through the device, technology is advancing by the day. It is now possible to measure the size of objects and heights of people by just scanning your mobile phones. AR and VR games are becoming popular by the day and it is expected to boom by 2018. The gaming industry forecasts a bright future as Google Ingress and Pokémon Go were the highlights of 2016. AR is already incorporated in healthcare as University of Maryland uses Microsoft HoloLens and a special software to improve ultrasound imaging.

5. Artificial Intelligence Software 

Customer service is number one priority for all businesses, and artificial intelligence stands as the number one solution. Oracle introduced a chatbot that interacts with customers visiting websites and more. It is predicted that chatbots are to dominate brand interactions by the year 2020. Artificial intelligence is said to change the workforce by reducing jobs to 45% or requiring newer skills by the day. For instance, AI voice synthesizers are becoming increasingly popular to replace voice actors for narration and come at a fraction of the cost. Artificial intelligence has the potential to increase business profitability by an average of 38% by the year 2038. About 35% of healthcare organizations are on the set out to incorporate artificial intelligence by 2018. AI is here to stay, but do you know if your organization is using AI too? Around 63% of the companies using AI are still not aware that this technology is part and parcel of their work. Are you?

6. Blockchain Technology 

Security is becoming number one priority with data growing day by day. Blockchain is said to have a digital transformation that would impact economic growth with time. Blockchain technology revolutionized the internet through the digital currency called “Bitcoin” or “digital gold”.

“The blockchain is an incorruptible digital leader of economic transactions that can be programmed to record not just financial transactions but virtually everything of value”

  • Don and Alex Tapscot

Blockchain technology is said to change the finance industry entirely. Currently, there is a very high demand for blockchain developers and it is expected to grow in the upcoming years.

7. Mobile Internet

Free internet, low schemes, public Wi-Fi and 4th Generation technology are changing the way people are connected online. 5G technology and hyper connectivity are expected to slowly emerge as technology aims to utilize thin air to the maximum. Nokia is ready to start productions on 5G base stations, called ‘AirScale’ while Turkey and Japan are folding up their sleeves to dive into the next generation mobile internet service. It is predicted that there will be around 500 million 5G subscriptions by 2022.

8. Cloud Computing 

Software as a Service (Saas) is helping businesses grow as 60% of services account for cloud technology. Cloud storage capacity is also increasing with time and all technologies are shifting to the cloud. The only drawback with data on cloud is security, as 2017 has seen the most cyberattacks so far. Data from Equifax reveal that cyberattacks are known to be a reality of the future. Accessing data from anywhere anytime is possible with cloud and technology has advanced to bring software services on phones, tablets and desktops as well. Cloud computing has always been a trend from early 2000’s and is expected to boom in 2018.

9.Virtual Assistance 

Virtual assistants like Amazon’s Alexa, Echo and more, imitating the OS from the movie ‘Her’, chatbots seem to revolutionize the market with its artificial intelligence. Apple’s Siri and Google’s Okay Google shed light on the emergence of this software technology. It is now becoming a trend setter as people rely on robots and software to guide them through how-to’s and other helping methods. The 24/7 availability of customer service and human-like voices, including intelligent responses can take virtual assistance to the next level in the upcoming years.

10. Enterprise Software 

The needs of an organization or a community of people are carefully analyzed and fulfilled by newer software. Applications like Food Panda, Uber, Snapchat, Instagram and Facebook are incorporating new technologies that add insights on customer activity and interactions. Slack did wonders on engaging teams in organizations to communicate with each other online. 2017 saw multiple new software emerging to dominate the technology world and hence 2018 is expected to see a lot more, catered to rising needs, requirements and expectations. 

Summary

Augmented Reality, Artificial intelligence, Blockchain Technology, CRM, cloud computing, Big data and more are all buzz words we hear every day. We see these terms on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and all other social media platforms. The 20th century saw a boom in technology and mobile data traffic has grown 18-fold since the last 5 years. Technology grew 63% in the past two years. Technological growth in the non-manufacturing private sector saw a large boom, increasing from 0.9% to 2.7% per year from early 2000s. This includes large and important service sectors. Technology is developing at warp speed and there is an expected emergence of a whole other level of opportunities for tech savvy enthusiasts.

Growth in Global Tech Market

It is a given that the curve only rises, and technology seems bullish through the years. Technology predictions are becoming more accurate than predicting climate change and the weather and there seems to be a slow growth of 3-4% in the Global Tech Market in 2018. Cryptocurrencies are predicted to grow 3.9% in 2018. The US tech market is predicted to see the strongest growths in 2018, as it is expected to rise a minimum of 4.8%. Overall, software technology is assumed to have the best growth, around 5% to 7%, while tech consulting and system integration services will have 3% to 5% growth.

There may be a few risk factors that may cause technology trends and forecasts to deviate from the predicted values, but looking from the far future perspective, these elements seem to set the trend in 2018. There will be a never-ending dependence on software technology. Software technology envisions a boom in company revenue due to the rise in automation and decline in workforce. Software technologies can be cost-effective, time saving and easier on the implementation perspective. 2017 saw a resonating upsurge in software technology. Let’s see what 2018 has in store!