The boffins at technology research giant Gartner see three core tech themes blazing a trail through 2017 with the power to significantly disrupt consumer lives and business activity.
Intelligent, digital, and mesh; these form the basis for the Top 10 strategic technology trends for 2017, announced by vice president and Gartner Fellow David Cearley at Gartner’s Symposium/ITxpo.
‘These technologies are just beginning to break out of an emerging state and stand to have substantial disruptive potential across industries,’ he says.
Cearley and his team have broken down each of their three major themes into smaller components of change.
‘Today, a digital stethoscope has the ability to record and store heartbeat and respiratory sounds,’ Clearley explain.
‘Tomorrow, the stethoscope could function as an “intelligent thing” by collecting a massive amount of such data, relating the data to diagnostic and treatment information, and building an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered doctor assistance app to provide the physician with diagnostic support in real-time.’
‘AI and machine learning increasingly will be embedded into everyday things such as appliances, speakers and hospital equipment,’ the technology expert goes on. ‘This phenomenon is closely aligned with the emergence of conversational systems, the expansion of the IoT into a digital mesh and the trend toward digital twins.
INTELLIGENT
Trend 1: AI & Advanced Machine Learning
Trend 2: Intelligent Apps
Trend 3: Intelligent Things
AI and machine learning have reached a critical tipping point and will increasingly augment and extend virtually every technology enabled service, thing or application.
Creating intelligent systems that learn, adapt and potentially act autonomously rather than simply execute predefined instructions is primary battleground for technology vendors through at least 2020.
DIGITAL
Trend 4: Virtual & Augmented Reality
Trend 5: Digital Twin
Trend 6: Blockchain
The lines between the digital and physical world continue to blur creating new opportunities for digital businesses.
Look for the digital world to be an increasingly detailed reflection of the physical world and the digital world to appear as part of the physical world creating fertile ground for new business models and digitally enabled ecosystems.
MESH
Trend 7: Conversational Systems
Trend 8: Mesh App and Service Architecture
Trend 9: Digital Technology Platforms
Trend 10: Adaptive Security Architecture
The mesh refers to the dynamic connection of people, processes, things and services supporting intelligent digital ecosystems.
As the mesh evolves, the user experience fundamentally changes and the supporting technology and security architectures and platforms must change as well.
