All hail the future of digital technology in 2020

Every year, when we speak of the future of tech we repeat the same things: Cloud, Edge Compute, the IoT, AR. It seems like the same chairs being rearranged around the same old room.

While the same core technologies that dominated these discussions will continue to be foundational to our collective digital transformation journey, 2020 will be defined by a fresh new class of technologies ready to graduate from the sidelines to center stage.

Blockchain

Originally designed to enable crypto currency, blockchain has had a major impact on the financial services industry in recent years. Going into 2020, we will hopefully, finally start to see scale for some meaningful usage for blockchain beyond cryptocurrency.

A decade on, it has set its sights on everything from space travel to how people vote. Many global leaders are already playing in this space, including Samsung, Microsoft, IBM and China’s Alibaba.

5G

With some of the biggest names in telecommunications, like Qualcomm, AT&T, Verizon, Nokia, Ericsson and Huawei making sure that global 5G deployments stay on pace, and the world’s best Android handset makers already releasing 5G phones, 5G will hit the ground running in 2020.

This is going to work exponentially in favour of things like smart car development and other situations where real-time data sensors and connections to the Internet of Things are essential. Thus, the big news here isn’t just for 5G.

As a side note, WiFi6, not to be confused with 5G, is the next generation of WiFi connectivity, as 5G is the next generation of wireless. They’re not the same, but both will be big next year.

Analytics

Analytics are the competitive advantage. Companies that still aren’t investing heavily in analytics by 2020 probably won’t be in business in 2021.

There is far too much valuable customer data to be collected, processed and turned into insights for any company to remain competitive without making full use of modern analytics tools.

The heavy hitter tech companies are figuring out that the future is in data, most specifically, the real-time processing of it. So regardless of what industry you’re in, make use of data and analytics in 2020.

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Just like 5G is of no value in and of itself, neither is data. If you’re going to invest in analytics, you need to invest in AI and machine learning to be able to process the complex and sophisticated amounts of information and data sets you are collecting.

Put simply, you wouldn’t fill your house with food if you didn’t have the people there to cook it and eat it. The same is true with data and AI. Do not bother investing in data if you won’t also simultaneously invest in AI and machine learning to make it meaningful. 

Robotic Process Automation (RPA)

As the lowest hanging fruit of AI, RPA will continue to grow. An innovative technology, which automates the structured business operations with the help of robots which improves efficiency and productivity.

RPA tools/vendors are the softwares that helps to automate the tasks, which results in accurate, reliable and consistent outputs. The technology can be applied to any industry verticals which have been already used by many multinational companies to automate their day-to-day tasks.

User and Customer Experience

Organisations need to solve for increasing pressure on IT to open up bandwidth for delivering connected, personalised experiences for their consumers from customers to partners to employees to developers.

Consumers expect consistent journeys across multiple channels including messaging services and mobile service portals. Omni-channel customers spend 10 per cent more online than single-channel customers.

A connected experience means removing friction in the customer journey, and being accessible anywhere, anytime.