Autonomous Things, Augmented Analytics, Development driven by Artificial Intelligence, Quantum Computing and Digital Twins are among the top-10 technology trends identified by research firm Gartner for 2019.

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning are sweeping the technology development spectrum way faster than feared. If technology predictions forecast by experts are any indication, we will see radical changes in the way AI and ML impact technology processes and businesses.

Experts at research and consulting firm Gartner has come out with Top-10 technology trends for 2019. “We define a strategic technology trend as one with substantial disruptive potential that is beginning to break out of an emerging state into broader impact and use, or which are rapidly growing trends with a high degree of volatility reaching tipping points over the next five years,” Gartner says.

Autonomous Things

Autonomous things, such as robots, drones and autonomous vehicles, go beyond the automation provided by rigid programming models and exploit AI to deliver advanced behaviours that interact more naturally with their surroundings and with people, according to David Cearley, Vice-President and Gartner Fellow.

Augmented Analytics

Augmented analytics focuses on a specific area of augmented intelligence using machine learning (ML) to transform how analytics content is developed, consumed and shared. Its capabilities will advance rapidly to mainstream adoption as a key feature of data preparation, data management, modern analytics, business process management, process mining and data science platforms. “This will lead to citizen data science, an emerging set of capabilities and practices that enable users whose main job is outside the field of statistics and analytics to extract predictive and prescriptive insights from data,” Cearley says.

AI-Driven Development

Highly advanced AI-powered development environment automating both functional and non-functional aspects of applications will give rise to a new age of the ‘citizen application developer’ where non-professionals will be able to use AI-driven tools to automatically generate new solutions.

Digital Twins

A digital twin refers to the digital representation of a real-world entity or system. By 2020, Gartner estimates there will be more than 20 billion connected sensors and endpoints and digital twins will exist for potentially billions of things. Organisations will implement digital twins simply at first, and evolve them later.

Empowered Edge

The Edge refers to endpoint devices used by people or embedded in the world around us. Edge computing describes a computing topology in which information processing, and content collection and delivery, are placed closer to these endpoints. In the near term, edge will be driven by IoT and the need keep the processing close to the end rather than on a centralised cloud server. However, rather than creating a new architecture, cloud computing and edge computing will evolve as complementary models with cloud services being managed as a centralised service executing, not only on centralised servers, but also in distributed servers on-premises and on-the-edge devices themselves.

Over the next five years, specialised AI chips, along with greater processing power, storage and other advanced capabilities, will be added to a wider array of edge devices.

Immersive Experience

Conversational platforms are changing the way in which people interact with the digital world. Virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and mixed reality (MR) are changing the way in which people perceive the digital world. This combined shift in perception and interaction models leads to the future immersive user experience. “Over time, we will shift from thinking about individual devices and fragmented user interface (UI) technologies to a multichannel and multimodal experience,” Gartner says.

Blockchain

Blockchain, a distributed ledger, promises to reshape industries by enabling trust, providing transparency and reducing friction across business ecosystems potentially lowering costs, reducing transaction settlement times and improving cash flow. Blockchain provides an alternative trust mode and removes the need for central authorities in arbitrating transactions. “Current blockchain technologies and concepts are immature, poorly understood and unproven in mission-critical, at-scale business operations,” it feels.

Smart Spaces

Multiple elements — including people, processes, services and things — come together in a smart space (where the interaction between humans and devices enabled by digital communication) to create a more immersive, interactive and automated experience for a target set of people and industry scenarios.

Digital Ethics and Privacy

Digital ethics and privacy is a growing concern for individuals, organisations and governments. People are increasingly concerned about how their personal information is being used by organisations in both the public and private sectors, and the backlash will only increase for organisations which are not proactively addressing these concerns.

Quantum Computing

Quantum computing (QC) is a type of non-classical computing that operates on the quantum state of subatomic particles that represent information as elements denoted as quantum bits. Parallel execution and exponential scalability of quantum computers means they excel with problems too complex for a traditional approach or where a traditional algorithms would take too long to find a solution.

Industries such as automotive, financial, insurance, pharmaceuticals, military and research organizations have the most to gain from the advancements in QC.

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