Are you aligned with the frantic adoption rate of new digital technology (ies)? Does your business have a strong foundation for SMAC (social, mobile, analytics, and cloud) to incorporate the latest tech trends that’ll drive the post-digital wave?

Do you have a digitally mature workforce (digital technologies) to offer customized products and services that adapt to the constantly changing realities?

Well, these are the crucial questions that businesses will need to ask themselves before assimilating the upcoming technologies of 2020.

In the post-digital world, along with digital realities, related products and services will be hyper-personalized. And to decipher that, we will require a technology vision that meets the requirements of constantly changing on-demand experiences.

In a digital ecosystem that’s transitioning from social, mobile, analytics and cloud (SMAC) to the distributed ledger and quantum computing, where does your business stand? To understand this question, we have come up with the latest technology trends that you can incorporate into your business.

To understand such questions, we have come up with the latest technology trends that you can incorporate into your business.

New Technology Trends for 2020

If you are still wondering about the next technological innovation, take a look at the newest tech trends that are hand-picked by our experts after going through the extensive research methodology:

1. 5G Network

The advent of 5G is one of the most enigmatic new upcoming technologies that can impact businesses in 2020. Many industry experts have termed 5G as the future of communication and to some extent, it’s true.

“5G wireless networks will support 1,000-fold gains in capacity, connections for at least 100 billion devices and a 10 Gb/s individual user experience of extremely low latency and response times, as stated by Huawei. “Deployment of these networks will emerge between 2020 and 2030.”

However, to take this speed to everyday mobile users, mobile network carriers will need to increase bandwidth and reduce network costs. Moreover, LTE adoption isn’t waning and is estimated to reach $672 billion by the end of 2020.

2. Autonomous Driving

We all have heard about companies like Tesla, Alphabet, and Waymo, and the one thing that is common among them is their aim, which is to craft impeccable autonomous vehicles. The idea of a driverless car in itself generates a considerable amount of excitement.

Tesla chief Elon Musk already has the future design of autonomous vehicles and aims to go big in this industry.

During an interview, Elon has stated,

“From our standpoint, if you fast forward a year, maybe a year and three months, but next year for sure, we’ll have over a million Robo-taxis on the road.”

Functions like automated braking, lane-changing, and automation of other in-car systems are on its way to being streamlined with the guidance of data capture and analytics.

However, Gartner analyst Mike Ramsey thinks differently, which undoubtedly has a point,

There is still time for the modulation of the laws for autonomous driving by legislators, regulators, and authorities. Over that, significant tweaks will be required in the existing infrastructure, laws and social attitudes before we can embrace autonomous vehicles in the current technology trends. But all these determinants can’t rule out the possibility of autonomous vehicles in 2020.

3. The Empowered Edge

Today, the primary concern of every industry is the laggy approach that sometimes affects the overall management of the operations. Therefore, industries are focusing more on the efficiency and the response rate of computing, through which data analysis is made. And here comes the role of edge computing.

Edge computing brings data storage and computation closer to the businesses, and hence, ameliorates the response times and saves bandwidth. Also, it weighs more like the latest trend in technology because the industries are rapidly empowered with sophisticated and specialized resources, which is bound to reduce the latency.

As of now, edge computing is being fueled by the rapid evolution of the Internet of Things (IoT) and in the future, it will create an unstructured architecture over a set of distributed cloud services.

For instance, we have got drones that directly communicate with the enterprise IoT platform and conduct peer-to-peer exchanges. There is an increasing rise in the use of storage, sensor, computer, and advanced AI capabilities. One such example is the latest package delivery drone by Amazon.

4. Democratization of Technology

The term democratization is derived from the word democracy. Like in a democracy, everyone has equal rights and responsibility, similarly, the democratization of technology refers to the easy access of technical domain to everyone, irrespective of their profession and place.

Gartner asserts four key aspects of the democratization of technology trend that will make it big in 2020:

Application development
Design
Knowledge
Data and analytics

The best example of democratization can be credited to the developers, who will be able to generate data models without learning the skills of a data scientist.

However, there is still concern about the future use of this latest trend in information technology because it will also enable people to exploit easy-to-use tools, which may pose harm to society.

5. Human Augmentation

Human augmentation can be defined as a process by which a person’s physical and cognitive ability is strengthened. Once implanted in a human being, it will enable the person to execute tasks that were earlier impossible for him.

For instance, we have miners who use wearables to enhance their safety. Then the cases of human augmentation in soldiers are a highly anticipated topic and are in pursuit behind the curtains by the armed forces of many countries, as per reports.

The augmentation of humans will not only enhance the physical endurance of a person but it will also enhance the human’s ability to think and decide better. To put it simply, we can say that human augmentation does hold substantial potential in the future of technology.

6. Distributed Cloud

The trends of cloud storage and cloud computing are already embraced by the industries across the globe and the next big thing that is going to hit the tech ecosystem is the distributed cloud system. Distributed Cloud helps in connecting the public cloud distributed operation of cloud services to specific locations.

It’s expected that by 2020, 75% of the enterprise-generated data will be processed regardless of the centralized data center. This new upcoming technology of 2020 will be a significant breakthrough in the cloud infrastructure.

Distributed Cloud is still in its infancy and there is a long way to go. Many companies are up with their service subsets to be used in a distributed way.

7. DARQ Age is Here

Distributed ledger technology (such as blockchain), Artificial intelligence (AI), Extended reality (including virtual and augmented reality), and Quantum computing, abbreviated to DARQ form one such future technology trend of 2020 that business must integrate on priority. So, when you approach hiring, training, and employee retention in 2020, keep DARQ in mind.

Volkswagen, for instance, is already cashing in one of the biggest technology trends of 2020. It used quantum computing to test traffic flow optimization and accelerate battery development.

The company is also testing distributed ledgers to provide automatic payments at gas stations, create tamper-proof odometers, protect cars from hackers and more. Similarly, it’s using AR instructions to help service employees repair vehicles.

Taking all these use cases of DARQ into consideration, we can say that its existence in 2020 is beyond shadow of doubt.

8. Personal Profiling

Digital integration into people’s lives has become so deep that data analytics has more information than they could ever analyze with current technology. As consumer analytics becomes a crude priority of every business, the latest tech trend is profiling consumers by examining how they interact with the technology in hand.

To analyze the gateways to profiling user spending patterns, we need to answer questions like:

What social media apps do they most visit?
How do they curate their social profiles?
What pictures do they post?
What all places they check into on social media?

The trick here for businesses is to integrate and adapt to an individual’s preference for the latest technology. Gillette is one such example that has partnered with 3D printing startup Formlabs to offer customized razor designs.

Despite having a promising future, a top technology trend like this raises one glaring question – where is consumer consent in this personal profiling and where do we draw the socially acceptable line and how will this line differ from consumer to consumer?

Well, for that, we have to wait and watch the manner in which personal profiling is deployed by the businesses in 2020.

9. AI Products

Artificial technology or AI is not a new term in the IT sphere, but now there are further verticals of AI that are shaping the industries globally.

AI technology trends, including products like AlterEgo, a mind-reading wearable, and citizen robots like Sophia, are only a promo to how big AI technology will get in 2020. Companies like Dominos and Doordash are already experimenting with drones and robot delivery.

Although at present, these latest emerging technologies are still riddled with glitches threatening human safety, but looking at their enormous prospects, the supplements of AI are bound to become a technology trend in 2020.

10. Data Policing

Ever since the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) tightened the bolts on privacy and data protection laws, businesses and consumers alike have become more aware of their vulnerability to data breach and cyber-attacks.

According to Gartner, by 2020, nearly 70% of organizations will be exposed to personal data archiving. That’s a 60% growth since 2018 when the number was at 10%.

In fact, emerging technology trends like cryptocurrency will be one of those upcoming technologies that are yet to be compliant with privacy laws. An insertion of personal data into public blockchains can be a major worry for 75% of public blockchains by 2020. As a result, an entire ecosystem, based on data-driven technologies, that is constantly growing in its interconnections is a key tech trend that businesses can benefit from by forging early-on partnerships.

11. Momentary Markets

Real-time opportunity to capture “momentary markets” will change the face of customer analytics and advertising in ways hard to imagine. As digital realities get more sophisticated and narrowed down to an exclusive reality of each moment, global technology trends will align towards more customized and on-demand experiences to fulfill customer needs.

To do this, businesses will need to combine real-time analytics capabilities with sophisticated back-end systems to capture constantly altering customer needs. Pairing this with constantly updating digital demographics will open new alleys for businesses to discover unmet customer needs.

12. Automation

Automation is aimed to augment people and propel business operations. It combines packaged software, machine learning, and automation tools to deliver the results. In the next couple of years, automation of data science will empower scientists to churn out advanced analysis.

For example, businesses in retail will need such sophisticated automation to compete with cashier-less AMAZON GO stores. Automation has already had us welcome cashier-less AMAZON Go stores across the US, but according to CNBC, the number will be 3,000 of its cashier-less AMAZON GO stores by 2021.

According to a PWC report, automation will go through three waves of automation:

Algorithmic displacing around 3% to 30% of jobs from the early 2020s to mid-2020s.
Augmentation increasing these percentages higher as technology improves itself.
Autonomy wave that is predicted to surface in the mid-2030s.

13. Reskilling Human Workforce

At the speed at which machines are learning and upscaling, the human workers’ digital sophistication will be a must-have in the latest technology trends in 2020. The present human workforce is dealing with a disruptive digital transformation where cloud, analytics and digital wave may still stand essential for groundwork but are no longer the crown jewels of “disruptive technologies.” Yet the human workforce is still recruited, trained, and assessed in pre-digital ways.

To integrate the new technology of 2020, businesses need to train their workforce in a post-digital manner. For instance, the next-gen workforce needs to be trained in Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, Internet of Things, Blockchain, and Artificial Intelligence, among other future trends in technology that are bound to make an appearance in technology vision of 2020.

14. Medical Upgrade

A much-anticipated tech trend in 2020 will be sophistication of technology upgrades in the medical field. 3D printing will open a new business of advanced prosthetics as many universities are expanding their research in 3D printing of bionic body parts.

Scientists at Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, for instance, have 3D printed a “bionic ear” that can “hear” radio frequencies far beyond the range of normal human capability.

Similarly, telemedicine and virtual diagnosis powered by AI and AR will need businesses to rework their business model in medicine.

15. Digital Debit

Facebook’s cryptocurrency project Libra is expected to be completely fleshed out and in sync with government regulations by 2020. As cryptocurrency gains stronger credibility and digital payment systems like Google Pay and Amazon Pay grow in use, traditional banking will lose its ground.

In 2020, traditional banks will hold a greater value, but businesses will need to carve out the adoption space for growing digital transaction sources. It’s no coincidence that banks like Bank of America are gathering blockchain patents.

Key Takeaways of 2020 Tech Trends

Businesses will need to adapt to a transition from social, mobile, analytics and cloud (SMAC) to Distributed ledger technology (such as blockchain), Artificial intelligence (AI), Extended reality (including virtual and augmented reality), and Quantum computing (DARQ)
Personal profiling of consumers by analyzing their social profiles, where they check-in and what products do they tag among other parameters will change marketing for businesses.
Businesses will require the reskilling of the Next-gen workforce to be trained in 2020 tech trends such as Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, Internet Of Things, Blockchain, Artificial Intelligence.
Ever since the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) laid the foundation for data privacy regulations, businesses will need to adapt their analytics to similar guidelines in 2020 to protect user information.
Real-time opportunity to capture “momentary markets” will require businesses to update customer analytics and advertising.
AI products like AlterEgo, Sophia (robot) and driverless vehicles from companies like Tesla, Uber, and Volvo will get more sophisticated in 2020.
3D printing will open doors to bionic body parts processing, while telemedicine combined with AR diagnosis will upgrade businesses in medicine.
Automation in businesses will ride in three waves: Algorithmic, Augmentation, and Autonomy implying that automated stores like cashier-less AMAZON GO stores will surface, increase and lose all human workforce in stages across 2020.
Traditional banking will get a little weaker with Facebook’s cryptocurrency project Libra and the growth of digital payment systems like Amazon pay.
5G will support 1,000-fold gains in capacity, connections for at least 100 billion devices and a 10 Gb/s. While this means faster browsing for businesses, the unimpeded growth of LTE still questions 5G.

What’s Next in Technology?

Technology trends in 2020 will come with both unfathomable innovation and intricate connectivity, drawing the social responsibility of businesses to respect the ethical lines of the consumer data breach. According to the PwC report, AI Products by 2030 will contribute over $15.7 trillion to the global economy.

Analytics will see dramatic changes for businesses in terms of product modification. A machine learning app developed by Sam’s Club is already using machine learning to analyze customers’ past purchases and auto-fill their shopping lists. It also plans to add a navigation feature, which will show optimized routes through the store to each item on that list.

While this suggests more sophisticated consumer satisfaction and better business, it also begs the question of what is the real cost of consumer analytics in 2020 collected for these services.

In 2020, business not only needs to come together to form a cyber-secure ecosystem but also review their take on data analytics. For that to happen, the present staff needs to be well trained for the latest trends in technology and the process should be followed accordingly.

We expect to catch sight of a technological advanced world with conclusive use cases of all the above mentioned technologies.

Reference

Latest Technology Trends That Will Continue to Impact Businesses