10 Insightful Technology Predictions for 2017 by Gartner 3

The other week Gartner published a paper – Top Strategic Predictions for 2017 and Beyond: Surviving the Storm-Winds of Digital Disruption – highlighting their top 10 technology predictions for 2017. Its interesting stuff because now every industry is impacted by unprecedented levels of innovation which has been brought about by a technology revolution. The Gartner paper is well worth a read, and in this post i thought i would summarise the main themes.

Overall Technology Trends:

Gartner describe 3 overall trends:

• Digital experience and engagement in virtual interactions
• Business innovation which will bring about great changes
• Secondary effects resulting from heightened digital capabilities, which will disrupt even more than previously

Daryl Plummer (managing vice president ) describes the speed of digital change, the recent acceleration of those changes and the likelihood of “secondary effects that have wide-ranging impact on people and technology”.

10 Predictions for IT Organisations in 2017 and Beyond:

1. ENHANCED SHOPPING EXPERIENCE:

– By 2020, 100 million consumers will shop in augmented reality:

Augmented Reality (AR) displays digital information over the users surrounding environment in real time. One of the most recent successful examples of this is the Pokemon Go app. Through augmented reality the retail experience can be transformed, now a digital representation (text, image, video, audio) can overlay the real world and result in deeper customer engagement. Gartner highlight an example of how AR will allow someone using the IKEA catalogue app to see how a piece of furniture would look in their home.

2. VOICE FIRST BROWSING:

– By 2020, 30% of web browsing sessions will be done without a screen

The way in which we are experiencing the web is changing, from hands and eyes based browsing to one where we are use our voices instead. This has already began according to Gartner through technologies such as Apple Airpods, Google Home and Amazon Echo. Voice driven apps will grow and the use of a screen will diminish.

3. MOBILE APPS DECLINE:

– By 2019, 20% of brands will abandon their mobile apps

The App space according to Gartner is getting too crowded and the cost of developing, supporting, marketing, upgrading and maintaining the mobile app is much higher than originally anticipated. Companies are aware of these costs and will in time start to twilight their mobile apps.

4. ALGORITHMS IN THE WORKPLACE

– By 2020, algorithms will positively alter the behavior of more than 1 billion global workers global workers

This is all about the use of algorithms in the workplace to influence and change employee decisions. Gartner highlight examples across a number of institutions including Amazon (use of big data), JP Morgan (forecasting) and Virgin Atlantic (guiding pilots to be fuel efficient) and explain how algorithms will increasingly influence employee productivity in the workplace.

5. BLOCKCHAIN HAPPENS!

– By 2022, a blockchain-based business will be worth $10 billion

Gartner explain that blockchain is currently an immature technology but will enable a revolution in transaction or event recording. They talk about smart contracts, automation, speed, an immutable record and secure network that existing business solutions cannot match. Within Financial Services blockchain is widely discussed and debated not a day goes by where blockchain isnt in the news !

6. THE INFLUENCE OF DIGITAL GIANTS

– By 2021, 20% of all activities an individual engages in will involve at least one the top-seven digital giants

The digital giants (by market capitalisation) Gartner is referring to are: Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent. Basically everything digital that we do – web search, mobile, social networking, messaging, shopping, music streaming – will in some way or other be either directly or indirectly connected to the digital giants. As the digital ecosystem evolves, the giants will be part of and have a data-based understanding of our digital experiences. Ooo-err!

7. INNOVATION INVESTMENT

– Through 2019, every $1 enterprises invest in innovation will require an additional $7 in core execution

Gartner explain how innovation comes at a cost. Innovation goes beyond the initial idea, there are design, implementation, integration and operational costs that need to be understood and managed. With this understanding organisations are recognising the need for investment beyond what was originally anticipated.

8. LOW IoT DATA STORAGE

– Through 2020, IoT will increase data center storage demand by less than 3%

Gartner point out how the Internet of Things (IoT) will potentially result in a lot of data by 2020, with 21 billion IoT endpoints anticipated to be in use. But Gartner explain that overall the need for data storage will be relatively low because much of the data will not be stored, instead the data will only be required for a short period of time. This Gartner believe shows the scalability of the IoT offering business critical insights, while at the same time being manageable from a data storage perspective.

9. IoT WILL ENABLE HUGE COST SAVINGS

– By 2022, IoT will save consumers and businesses $1 trillion a year in maintenance, services and consumables

This is quite an interesting one! Gartner describe how the IoT can help to reduce the cost of maintenance and consumables through monitoring sensors that can report the health of a given machine. Analytics of the data can highlight and recommend maintenance based on actual usage and condition of a given item – rather than an elapsed period of time or estimated based maintenance. Gartner also speak about the use of a digital twin to capture real time data feeds from a real world based twin (armed with sensors) which combined with other data can simulate the real world twin. This allows the digital twin to be inspected and is useful when the real world item is in an inconvenient or hazardous environment.

10. WEARABLES REDUCE HEALTHCARE COSTS

– By 2020, 40% of employees can cut their healthcare costs by wearing a fitness tracker

Leading a healthy lifestyle will be a message embraced by many corporations for their employees. This will be enabled through fitness trackers and gamifying fitness so that employees will lead healthier lives – helping to reduce health care costs overall. In the short term Gartner estimate that corporations will promote the use of wearable fitness tracking devices by 2017.